4.00 MBEIOPHYLLY. 
in which all the little drupes which go to make up the 
ordinary fruit were absent, except one, which thus 
resembled a small cherry. In Cvatwgus the pistil 1s 
similarly reduced to a single carpel, as in C. monogynd. 
The writer has on more than one occasion met with 
walnuts (Juglans) with a single valve and a single 
suture. If the ovary of Juglans normally consisted 
of two valvate carpels, the instances just alluded to 
might possibly be explained by the suppression of one 
carpel, but the ovary in Juglans is at first one-celled 
according to M. Casimir de Candolle. 
Among monocotyledons Convallaria majalis may be 
mentioned as very liable to suffer diminution in the 
number of its carpels, either separately or in association 
with other changes.” 
Meiophylly of the flower as a whole—In the preceding 
sections a reduction in the parts of each imdividual 
whorl has been considered without reference to similar 
diminution in neighbouring verticils. It more com- 
monly happens, nevertheless, that a defect in one 
series is attended by a corresponding imperfection in 
adjoining ones. Thus trimerous fuchsias and tetrame- 
rous jasmines may frequently be met with, and Turpin 
describes a tetramerous flower of Cobea scandens. 
Perhaps monocotyledonous plants are more subject to 
this numerical reduction of the parts of several verti- 
cils than are other flowering plants. Thus, in both 
Talium lancifolium and L. auratwm the writer has fre- 
quently met with pentamerous flowers. In Convallaria 
maialis a like deviation not unfrequently occurs.’ M. 
Delavaud has recorded a similar occurrence in a tulip." 
Dimerous crocuses may also sometimes be met with. 
In one flower of this nature the segments of the 
perianth were arranged in decussating pairs, and the 
1 See also Clos, ‘ Bull. Soc. Bot. Fr.,’ xiti, p. 96, adnot. 
2 See Cramer, ‘ Bildungsabweich,’ p. 7. Hildebrand, ‘ Bot. Zeit.,’ xx, 
1862, p. 209. 
3 See Hildebrand, ‘ Bot. Zeit.,’ xx, 1862, p. 209. ’ 
4 «Bull. Soc. Bot. Fr.,’ viii, p. 287. 
