282 Scientific Intelligence. 



less completely, into a pair of stamens, or a forked and biantlieriferous 

 filament; and so he concludes that the scales are composed of two abor- 

 tive stamens united, " and in consequence that these two bodies do not 

 constitute any real exception to the law^s of alternation," nor arise from a 

 transverse chorisis of the petal. But the advocates of chorisis will find 

 no difficulty in these facts, and, agreeing with the writer in the Journal of 

 Botany for 1849, that the scale belongs to the petal, will also maintain 

 that its evolution into a double stamen in this case affords no proof nor 

 presumption that the scale really represents a pair of true adnate stamens 

 (any more than, per contra^ the half-petal, lialf-stamen bodies of a semi- 

 double Rose or Camellia are morphologically petals), so long as the the- 

 ory o{ collateral chorisis is not invalidated, — since that theory just as well 

 explains the double stamen of the case in hand as it does any other case* 

 The same monstrous flowers clearly showed the carpellary origin of the 

 ovules; and so perhaps as really do the normal blossoms of the same 

 plant, with complete dissepiments at the base of the ovary. 



Mr. Currey describes and figures (plate 2) a new species oi Pilolohus, 



Professor Lindley contributes a note on Spiranthes gemrnipara^ of the 

 "west coast of Ireland, and shows that it is neither our American S. cer- 

 nua (as had of late been supposed, see p. 384 of this volume), nor S. 

 Romanzoffiana. To this succeeds the longest paper in the faciculus, viz. 

 Prof. Lindley's Contributions to the Orchidology of India, ]S"o. 1. ''To 

 nothing, perhaps, more remarkable does an examination of Indian Or- 

 chids lead, than to the unexpected fact that they show certain species to 

 have a most extensive geographical distribution. Hitherto it has been 

 believed that these plants are extremely local, and such is probably the 

 case with epiphytes ; but it is quite the reverse with terrestrial species, the 

 range of some of which proves to be as wide as that of the most ubiqui- 

 tous species belonging to other natural orders.'' This is illustrated by 

 examples. We are interested to find that Goodyera repens inhabits the 

 Sikkim Himalayas; and that Dr. Hooker also found there a Tipularla^ 

 which is characterized as a distinct species, but is not unlikely to be a 

 mere variety of our own rare (but my no means local) T. discolor. 



Mr. Oliver describes certain glandular appendages of the leaves in the 

 autumnal rosettes of EpiloUum montanum ; and, finally, Dr. Hicks de- 

 scribes a new British species of Draparnaldia. 



Since the foregoing notice was written, No. 5, or the first fasciculus of 

 the second volume, has come to hand. The botanical portion comprises 

 the following articles, besides the commencement of one from Dr. Thomson. 



On the Cultivation of Mosses, by the Rev. H. H, Iliggins. Mr.^H. re- 

 lates his experience in cultivating various mosses — about 240 species— i^ 

 a hryarium, on the Ward-case principle. 



Synopsis of the Genus Clitorla; by George Bentham.— The important 

 points of general interest are, first, the union of JVeurocarpum of Desvaux 

 with this genus, for the same reason that the author reunites Tetragono- 

 lohus with Lotus; giving up the character, as generic, of a raised nerve 

 or wing along the centre of the valves of the pod. Besides its being 

 unaccompanied by other characters, in Cliloria it proves to be inconstant 

 in the same species or even in the same individual. Mr. Bentham pro- 

 ceeds to remark that : "The external forms acquired by fruits in their de- 

 velopment from the ovary to maturity, and especially the foliaceous 

 Appendages they assume, are sometimes irrespective of tbeir organic struc- 



