Nov. 4, 1869 | 
NATURE 
If 
followed, until the notions which represented Goethe’s 
superlative are now the commonplaces of science— 
and we have a super-superlative of our own. 
When another half-century has passed, curious readers 
of the back numbers of Nature will probably look 
on our best, “not without a smile ;” and, it may 
be, that long after the theories of the philosophers 
whose achievements are recorded in these pages, are 
obsolete, the vision of the poet will remain as a 
truthful and efficient symbol of the wonder and the 
mystery of Nature. T. H. Hux.ey 
ON THE FERTILISATION OF WINTER- 
FLOWERING PLANTS 
HAT the stamens are the male organ of the flower, 
forming unitedly what the older writers called the 
“andreecium,” is a fact familiar not only to the scientific 
man, but to the ordinary observer. ‘The earlier botanists 
formed the natural conclusion that the stamens and pistil 
in a flower are intended mutually to play the part of male 
and female organs to one another. Sprengel was the first 
to point out, about the year 1790, that in many plants the 
arrangement of the organs is such, that this mutual inter- 
change of offices in the same flower is impossible ; and 
more recently, Hildebrand in Germany, and Darwin in 
England, have investigated the very important part played 
by insects in the fertilisation of the pistil of one individual 
by the stamens of another individual of the same species. 
It is now generally admitted by botanists that cross-ferti- 
lisation is the rule rather than the exception. The various 
contrivances for ensuring it, to which Mr, Darwin has 
especially called the attention of botanists, are most beau- 
tiful and interesting ; and the field thus opened out is one 
which, from its extent, importance, and interest, will 
amply repay the investigation of future observers. For 
this cross-fertilisation to take place, however, some foreign 
agency like that of insects is evidently necessary, for con- 
veying the pollen from one flower to another. The question 
naturally occurs, How then is fertilisation accomplished in 
those plants which flower habitually in the winter, when 
the number of insects that can assist in it is at all events 
very small? I venture to offer the following notes as a 
sequel to Mr. Darwin’s observations, and as illustrating a 
point which has not been elucidated by any investigations 
that have yet been recorded. I do not here refer to those 
flowers of which, in mild seasons, stray half-starved speci- 
mens may be found in December or January, and of which 
we are favoured with lists every year in the corners of 
newspapers, as evidence of “the extraordinary mildness 
of the season.” I wish to call attention exclusively to 
those plants, of which we have a few in this country, 
whose normal time of flowering is almost the depth of 
winter, like the hazel-nut Corylus avellana, the butcher’s 
broom Ruscus aculeatus, and the gorse Ulex europaeus ; 
and to that more numerous class which flower and fructify 
all through the year, almost regardless of season or tem- 
perature ; among which may be mentioned the white and 
red dead-nettles Lamium album and purpureum, the 
Veronica Buxbaumiz, the daisy, dandelion, and groundsel, 
the common spurge Euphorbia peplus, the shepherd’s 
purse, and some others, 
During the winter of 1868-69, I had the opportunity of 
making some observations on this class of plants; the 
result being that I found that, as a general rule, fertilisa- 
tion, or at all events the discharge of the pollen by the 
anthers, takes place in the bud before the flower is opened, 
thus ensuring se/f/ertilisation under the most favourable 
circumstances, with complete protection from the weather, 
assisted, no doubt, by that rise of temperature which is 
known to take place in certain plants at the time of flower- 
ing. The dissection of a flower of Laméum album (Fig. 
A) gathered the last week in December, showed the 
stamens completely curved down and brought almost into 
contact with the bifid stigma, the pollen being at that time 
freely discharged from the anthers. A more complete 
contrivance for self-fertilisation than is here presented 
would be impossible. The same phenomena were ob- 
served in Veronica Buxbaumit, where the anthers are 
A. LAMIUM ALBUM. 
1. Section of bud, calyx and corolla removed. 
2. Stamen from bud, enlarged, discharging pollen. 
almost in contact with the stigma before the opening of 
the flower, which occurs but seldom, /. agves¢zs and folita, 
the larger periwinkle Vzzca major, the gorse, dandelion, 
groundsel, daisy, shepherd’s purse, in which the four 
longer stamens appear to discharge their pollen in the 
bud, the two shorter ones not till a later period, Lamzum 
purpureum, Cardamine hirsuta, and the chickweed S7e/- 
laria media, in which the flowers open only under the 
influence of bright sunshine. In nearly all these cases, 
abundance of fully-formed, seed-bearing capsules were 
observed in the specimens examined, all the observa- 
tions being made between the 28th of December and the 
2oth of January. 
In contrast with these was also examined a number of 
wild plants which had been tempted by the mild January 
to put forth a few wretched flowers at a very abnormal 
season, including the charlock S7%zapis arvensis, wild 
thyme Zhymus serpyllum, and fumitory /ewnaria offi- 
cinalis ; in all of which instances was there not only no 
pollen discharged before the opening of the flower, but no 
seed was observed to be formed. An untimely specimen 
of the common garden bean ada vulgaris, presented 
altogether different phenomena from its relative the gorse, 
the anthers not discharging their pollen till after the 
opening of the flower; and the same was observed in the 
case of the Lamzum Galeobdolon or yellow archangel (Fig. 
B) gathered in April, notwithstanding its consanguinity 
to the dead-nettle. 
Another beautiful contrast to this arrangement is 
afforded by those plants which, though natives of warmer 
climates, continue to flower in our gardens in the depth of 
winter. An example of this class is furnished by the 
common yellow jasmine, Fasminium nudiflorum, from 
