Oct. 17, 1872] 



NATURE 



501 



those flowers in which the stamens are monadelphous, 

 viz., Ulex, Sarothaninus, Genista, Cytisus, Ononis, Lupin, 

 there is no symptom of nectar within the staminal tube, 

 no space for it, and no access to the interior. In some, at 

 any rate, of these, viz., Ulex, Ononis, and Lupin, the bees 

 certainly resort to other parts of the flower. On the 

 other hand, where the tenth stamen is entirely free, or 

 where it is separated at the base, so as to give an insect 

 access to the interior of staminal tube, as in all the other 

 flowers I have described, there is a cavity for nectar 

 within the staminal tube, and there is nectar within this 

 ca\ity.* As regards the double aperture, viz., one on 

 each side of the base of the separate stamen, which so 

 often occurs, Mr. Darwin suggests that, one aperture 

 being necessary, the law of symmetry will account for 

 there being two. 



4. Other points in the structure of the filaments, anthers, 

 and pollen seem also to be more or less related to and to 

 depend upon the same function of fertilisation by insects. 

 In Ulex, Genista, and Sarothamnus, where the flower is 

 open, and in Lupin and Lotus, where the agency of the 

 filaments is required to drive the pollen out of the keel, 

 the filaments are stiff. In Phaseolus, where the style 

 performs this function, they are limp. In Lotus and 

 Lupin, the peculiar form and growth of the second whorl 

 of stamens, and their adaptation to this function, is most 

 remarkable. In Pisum, Lathyrus, Vicia, Phaseolus, and 

 Lupin, where the pollen is moist, there is an apparatus for 

 sweeping it out. In Ulex, Genista, and Sarothamnus, 

 where it is dusty, the flower simply opens and it comes 

 out of itself. 



5. The structure of the style and stigma is in every case 

 adapted so as to bring the latter in contact with an enter- 

 ing insect. In some cases, e.g., in its emergence from 

 the spiral keel in Phaseolus, and in the recoil of the style 

 in Sarothamnus, this is effected by a very elaborate pro- 

 cess. But the most peculiar function of the style in many 

 of these flowers is that of sweeping out the moist pollen 

 of its own flower from the keel. For this purpose it ap- 

 pears to be furnished with hairs or bristles, placed in 

 different flowers on different parts, but always so placed 

 as to perform the function in question. In Pisum, and, 

 generally, in Lathyrus, the brush is on the inside of the 

 style ; in Latliynis grandijloriis on both sides ; in Phas- 

 eolus all round the style, but more thickly on the side next 

 the entering insect than on the other ; in Vicia on the 

 outside of the style ; in Lupin at the very extremity ; 

 but with all these differences it is always so placed as 

 to find the pollen and sweep it out of the variously 

 constructed keels. In this respect these flowers remind 

 one of the brush-clad styles of the Campanulacea?. 



6. It is scarcely necessary to repeat that the nectar 

 is found in various parts of the flower — within the 

 staminal tube, in the vexillum, and in the calyx. But 

 in all cases the correlation of the parts is such that an 

 insect seeking the nectar must touch the stigma and 

 carry away pollen. 



These generalisations, if even partially correct, seem 

 to me to be of considerable interest, not simply as illus- 

 trations of the mode in which insects fertilise flowers by 

 carrying pollen from one to the other, but because by 

 connecting the facts of morphological structure with living 

 physiological functions, they give meaning and interest to 

 the former, and possibly indicate the direction in which 

 the true cause of that structure is to be sought. 



It is but right to add that there is one genus, Coronilla, 

 which, so far as I have been able to observe it, forms an 

 exception to the above generalisation ; but 1 have not been 

 able to procure sufficient flowers to enable me to state any 

 positive conclusion with respect to this genus ; and 1 only 

 mention it in order to call the attention of other observers 

 to it. T. H. Farker 



• I have not actually looked for and found nectar in Onohrychis saiiz:a 

 and Lathyrus irtacrorhiziis^ but have no doubt that it is there. I have 

 found it in all the rest. 



NOTES 

 During the ab.5ence of Prof. Tyndall in America, the oppor- 

 tunity is being taken to rebuild the laboratories of the Royal In- 

 stitution on a considerably enlarged scale. 



It will be seen from our University intelligence that Mr. E. 

 Ray Lankester, Scholar of F.xeter College, Oxford, has been 

 appointed Deputy to the Linacre Professor of Anatomy and 

 Physiology at the University. 



The open Scholarship in Natural Science at St. Mary's 

 Hospital Medical School has been awarded to Mr. Alfred Tilley, 

 and the Exhibition to Mr. W. II. Weddell. Both these gentle- 

 men are students of the London University. 



There are now no fewer than five separate organisations at 

 Cambridge for the improvement of female education — all of 

 them thriving, i. Theexaminationof women, senior and junior 

 girls, and of schools managed by a syndicate, of which the 

 Rev. G. F. Browne, M.A., .St. Catherine College, is the secre- 

 tary. 2. A system of lectures for women, associated with four 

 exhibitions, and a fund for assisting governesses, managed by 

 a mixed committee of ladies and gentlemen, of which H. 

 Sidgwick, M.A., Trinity College, and Mrs. Bateson, St. 

 John's College Lodge, are the treasurers. 3. A series of classes 

 by correspondence arranged by Mrs. Telle. 4. A lending 

 library for students, managed by Miss J. Kemiedy. 5. A 

 college for women, called Merton Hall, of which Miss A. J. 

 Clough is the principal. We understand that this last estab- 

 lishment is rapidly filling. Tlie lectures commence this week. 



The Vestry of St. George's, Hanover Square, advertised some 

 time ago for a medical officer of health and analyst for the parish , 

 and a considerable number of candidates have, we understand, 

 come forward. It has been suggested in various quarters that 

 the Vestry would do well to appoint two officers instead of one ; 

 and on this point minds are divided. While some are in favour of 

 a double appointment (with, we suppose, double pay ? ) others 

 say that the Vestry are not likely to do this, and that it is undesirable 

 that they should, seeing that their real want is an accomplished 

 scientific sanitarian, who will, if necessary, appoint an assistant 

 to do the routine chemical work, just as he has an inspector to 

 do the routine sanitary work, but who will supervise every- 

 thing and be responsible for everything. It is further 

 urged that it is absurd to suppose that chemical knowledge 

 is not continually required from a medical officer of health, 

 quite apart from the provisions of the Act for the Adulteration of 

 Food and Drugs, and equally absurd to suppose that a medical 

 man without previous special sanitary experience is at all fitted 

 to become at once medical officer of health to so important a 

 parish as that of St. George's, Hanover Square. We confess we 

 have a leaning to the latter view. 



At the last meeting of the Council of the Pharmaceutical 

 Society, it was resolved unanimously that the resolution passed in 

 1S62, prohibiting ladies from attending the lectures, be rescinded, 

 and that ladies be admitted as students to the lecture classes of the 

 Society. At present but one lady has taken advantage of the privi- 

 lege offered ; but as soon as the resolution becomes more widely 

 known it is probable that the liberality of the Society will be 

 recognised by ladies, who wiU avail themselves of this excellent 

 opportunity of studying practical chemisti-y and botany. The 

 lectures on chemistry are by Prof. Redwood ; those on botany 

 by Prof Bcntley, commencing early in October. Tlie chemical 

 lectures are continued three days a week imtil the end of July ; 

 the botanical lectures, lasting for the same period, being delivered 

 on two days in the week. During the summer months they are 

 delivered in the Botanical Gardens, Regent's Park. 



A Russian lady, who desires to be anonymous, but is 

 rumoured to be "still veiy young, and a native of Siberia," has 



