274i ME. A. S. HORNE— A CONTEIBUTION TO 



(d) Garrya. 



Morphology of the Flower and Ovule. 



The plants of Garrya are dioecious. Botli the male and female inflorescences are 

 catkin-like. The flowers are situated in the axils of decussate bracts, either singly as 

 in G. Fadyenil and the majority of the species, or in groups of three as in G. elliptica. 

 The bracts are free in G. laurifolia, free and foliaceous in G. ovata, but connate at their 

 bases and foliaceous toward the lower end of the inflorescence in G* JFrightii. 



The male flower of G. eUiptica consists of an outer whorl of perianth leaves, an inner 

 whorl of four stamens which alternate with the perianth divisions and centrally situated 

 rudiments of an ovary. Payer*, who studied the development of the flower in 

 O. elliptica, states that two whorls of perianth leaves are present : — " Le periantJi est 

 double et compost : I'externe d'un petit bourrelet a quatre dents dont deux sont laterales 

 et un peu plus grande que les deux aatres situees, I'une en avant et I'autre en arriere ; 

 rinterne, de quatre divisions alternes libres entre elles jusqu'a la base." Similar 

 observations were made by Baillon f , who also described the development of the flower 

 in this species. Harms J discovered a small tooth-like process alternating with the 

 perianth divisions — also in G. elliptica, — which he identified as a rudimentary calyx leaf. 

 3Uit Wangerin §,from a study of several species, points out that the projections observed 

 by Harms are homologous with bracts. The writer has not reinvestigated the develop- 

 ment, but is unable to detect the presence of a second whorl in the mature flowers 

 of G. elliptica. 



Bentiiam and Hooker ||, in * Genera Plantarum,' and De Candolle, in * Prodromus,' note 

 that the stamens are opposite the calyx lobes in some species of Gai^rya. " Stamina 

 calycis lobis in aliis speciebus alternata, in aliis certe opposita." The information is 

 evidently derived from Bentham's ^ description of the new Mexican species, G. laurifolia 



and G. ovata, in * Plantae H 



^.-^ 



Stamina in utraque specie laciniis pe 



opposita, sic etiam ut videtur G. elliptica." But no reference to opposite stamens occurs 

 in Harms's diagnosis nor inWangerin's monograph on the Cornacese. Por this reason it 

 became eminently desirable to settle the point definitely. Accordingly, Dr. Eendle very 

 kindly allowed the writer to examine specimens of the male flowers of G. laurifoUa 

 (one of the species in question) from the Herbarium of the British Museum of Natural 

 History. Two portions were dissected. Each consisted of a terminal flower and the 

 lateral axillary flowers situated immediately below. In both specimens the uppermost 

 bracts were small and. resembled the perianth segments. Owing to this circumstance, 

 one of the terminal flowers (PL 28. fig. 22) appeared to consist of an outer whorl of 

 six perianth segments and an inner whorl of four stamens : of the latier, two were 



ipposite the perianth-like bracts (5r). The other terminal flower (fig. 24) consisted 



• J. B, Payer, 'Lesona sur les Families naturelles des Plantes ' (1860-1865) 124. 



t H. Baillon in Bull. Soc. Liim. Paris, i. (1877) 139. % Harais In Ber. Deutscli. Bot. Gesell. xv. (1897) 19 



§ \Y. Wanserin in Engl. Bot. Jahrb. xxsviii. Beibl. n. 86 (1006) 52-53. 



ji BeutUam et Hooker, Gen. PI, i. 951. % G. Beiitbam, Plant. Hartwegianae, 1-4. 



