TZ 
_ 
dener who discovered the specimen had cut off this piece, but 
Mr. Smith to whom it was handed has reason to suppose that 
it had borne male flowers only. 
AMARANTACEAE. 
Telanthera philoxeroides Miq. 
Habitat. Growing wild near Batavia in wet places but ac- 
cording to the index Kewensis originating from Brazil. 
~ Coll. C. A Backer. 
- According to the figures done by the Javanese draughts- 
man this plant (fig. 17) growing wild in and near Batavia 
shows in the majority of cases six pistils instead of one, as 
Mr. Smith writes to me. He adds that normal plants are 
difficult to be found. It would be of interest to know if 
this phenomenon has also been ascertained in other growing- 
places and if it has been mentioned before. Fruits are never 
found, the reproduction proceeds solely by means of subterranean 
shoots. In the ,Flora of Nederlandsch Indié” by Miquel, I p. 
1049, in which only T. strigosa is described, the said deviation 
is not mentioned and the generic diagnosis has ,flores herma- 
phroditi, stamina 5, ovarium uniovulatum.” 
~ On closer examination of the material, sent from Buitenzorg, 
I found that in the great majority of flowers the five stamens 
have been replaced by an equal number of pistils, but also 
that in a few cases remarbable transitions of stamens into 
pistils could be recorded. When from a normal flower the three 
bracts and the five parts of the perianth have been removed 
(fig. 176, Pl. IID), we find 5 stamens and a short-stalked pistil (c). 
Between the stamens and cohering with them we find five 
membranaceous outgrowths, each splitting up into four or 
more narrow teeth. Miquel calls them ,stamina sterilia triden- 
tata” '), Apart from the number of teeth which may be different 
in the various genera and species, it should be called to mind 
that Eichler*) looks upon these membranes not as barren 
4) le. p. 1050. . 2) Bliithendiagramme II, p. 87. 
