148 MR. S. J. A. SALTER ON A SEXUAL MONSTROSITY 
careful scrutiny. The ovule, figured in Pl. XXIV. fig. 7, was one of several which I 
removed from a slightly malformed ovary, and this. was the only one in it which I found 
containing pollen. There was in this ovule, surrounding the pollen, a true endothecium, 
an aggregation of spiral cells and some free spiral fibres. I have always found this to be 
the case in every instance, without exception, where pollen was present. 
As regards the pollen itself obtained from these several abnormal situations, it was 
quite characteristic of Passionflower pollen; that from the antheroid carpels, the ovules, 
and the true anthers was all alike. In some of the pollen-bearing ovule-like bodies I 
traced the pollen in different stages of development: in one instance I found perfectly 
matured pollen in an aggregated condition—three grains adherent as though the septation 
of the parent cells of the pollen had been incomplete, leaving the special parent pollen- 
cells connected, with a common cavity, so that their contents, the forming pollen, became 
and remained confluent. 
From the foregoing descriptions it is seen that, in these monstrous ovaries, a number 
of organs are developed on the same placenta, commencing at the distal extremity of the 
carpel with a bilobed anther, and passing in series to the base of the ovary, an antheroid 
body of ovule-like form, a modified ovule containing pollen, an ovule departing from a per- 
fectly natural condition only in the development of a few grains of pollen in its nucleus, 
and, finally, a perfect, normal ovule. 
Now, in contrasting these several organs together, it seems to me that their probable 
relation to one another may be best expressed thus :—That they were by intent one set 
of organs, originally incipient ovules, but developing different sexual tendencies: in 
those furthest from the axis, and where the carpels were most divided, the male sex 
influence has been paramount; and the formation of an anther-like body, with a large 
amount of pollen, has been the result. Where the organ has been near the base of the 
ovary (in which part the structure of the ovary has been normal), the female sex influence 
has been paramount, and the ovules were altogether natural in form and structure: and 
that the intermediate forms were determined by the predominant force of one or other sex. 
The splitting of the ovary and the development of polleniferous organs on the carpels 
were always concurrent, and to a great extent proportional in degree. This circumstance 
suggests the questions :— 
Is the want of union of the ventral sutures the result of an antheroid development, 
and with the object of permitting the pollen to escape? Or, 
Does the splitting of the ovary, by exposing the ovules, supply a physical condition 
which tends to convert incipient ovules into polleniferous organs 2 
As regards the particular part of the ovule which developes the pollen, the situation in 
which it takes place suggests the idea that the embryo-sac may be the seat of this change 
when it occurs in ovules otherwise perfectly formed. I cannot imagine that, in those 
other polleniferous organs in which the ovular anatomy has been entirely lost or much 
perverted, an embryo-sac could have had an existence, or that there had been any 
tendency towards its formation. It does seem probable, however, from position, where 
anatropous ovules have contained pollen, either that the cells of the embryo-sac, or, if 
they have not been as yet specialized, that that part of the nucleus about to furnish the 
