VI 



INTRODUCTION. 



pap 



shap 



be 



o 



ylind 



clavate 



j 



and 



a few cases it 



flat 



In many species it is 



pitate, peltate, or infundibuliform ; 



in not a few 



obliquely truncate, and 



i 



bicrural. It is, however, often very difficult to determine the exact form of the stigma 

 from the fact that at an early stage the stigmas of all the fertile female flowers of the 



nearly 



) ovary 



unilaterally emarginate (many 



same receptacle are joined together in a dense felted mass, from which it is 



impossible to detach any individ 



a state of entirety. After fertilisation 



becomes developed into an achene, which tends to be 



achenes are very distinctly reniform) 



and 



the 



tyle beco 



more 



lateral 



basal 



Tl 



ipe 



acl 



has a crustaceou 



pericarp 



of 



a 



pa 



yellow colour 



or even 



with 



a more or less minutely tuberculate or undulate surface. External to the crustaceous 

 coat there is occasionally a glairy or viscid layer. The pericarp is never very thick, 

 and sometimes it is conspicuously thin. 



n cutting the achene 



with 



small amount of alb 



I 



have not, however 



open, the embryo is seen 

 paid much attention to the 

 relation of the albumen to the embryo. Not a few of the perfect female flowers fail to 

 be fertilised. But the fact of the barrenness of such is not recognisable until the achene 

 has been cut open and they are found to contain no embryo. Externally these infertile 

 achenes exactly resemble those containing embryos. 



Besides the above four kinds of flowers 



there occur in all the species of Ft 



which I h 



examined a set of flower 



wh 



adoptin 



the 



name given to them by 



Count Solms-Laubach, I call gait flo^v 



My own name for these was 



n al 1 y 



insect-attached females ; but Count Solms-Laubach's name being much shorter and more 



uitable, I have adopted it 



The existence of these gall flowers in this genus as a 



iparate and distinct kind of flower, was first made publicly known by the distinguished 



botanist just mentioned 



B-danisske Zeilung, Nos. 33 to 36 for 1885 



vations and 



My own obser 



inquiries on Ficus have been in progress since 1878, but on account of 



my 



gness 



to publish anything until I had completed 

 anticipated in the publication of the facts about gall flowers. 



cli 



? 



have been 



T 



ipects resemble the fertile female flow 



gall flowers in man} 



they have in most cases a similar perianth 



an ovary, and a style. When fully developed 



? 



containing the 



they are recognised at a glance by their 



pupa of an insect, which can often be 



false achene into which the ovary develop 



seen through the 



pericarp of the 



But whether the pupa be visible or not 



the gall flower 



or whether it be present or not, the false achene of 



stages be distinguished from the true achene of the fertilised 



fertile female flower by being more often pedicillate, and by its shape being usually 



may in its later 

 ovary of the perfect or 



globu 



and 



rarely elliptic or reniform; by its surface being smooth, not minutely 



never viscid or & 



tubercular or undulate and 



distended appearance of 



rule, much shorter and straighter than the 



jarry 

 its tough membranous wall 



and frequently also by the tense 



(false pericarp) 



rr 



I 



tyle 



us, as a 



terminal, and it has 



tyl 



ery frequently a dilated tubular 



of the fertile female flower, and more 



apex 



Inch occupies the situation 



