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LII.— A CONTEIBUTION TO THE NATUKAL HISTOEY OF 

 THE HAIES OF THE ANDECECIUM. By GEEEN- 

 WOOD PIM, M.A., F.L.S. (Plates XIX. and XX.). 



[Eead, February 16, 1885.] 



It is not a little remarkable tliat in the minute scrutiny to wHcli 

 the organs of Phanerogamic plants have been subjected of late years 

 by botanists both at home and abroad, that the hairs which are to 

 be met with on the Androecium and Grynoeoium should have been, 

 at least so far as I have been able to ascertain, almost entirely 

 neglected. This seems the more strange since those on leaves, 

 stems, &c., have had their due meed of attention, while staminal 

 hairs present much more remarkable variations both in structure 

 and distribution. It cannot, I think, be doubted, that these organs 

 play a most important part in the mechanism of fertilization, so 

 that here we have a fresh point of departure in that interesting 

 branch of botanical science; for even in Hermann Miiller's well- 

 known works these hairs are but most casually alluded to, and 

 their minuter structure little, if at all, noticed. 



Dr. G. A. Weiss, of Prague, in his AUgemeine Botanik, 

 published in 1878, devotes a considerable space to the subject of 

 trichomes in general, but with the exception of those of Trades- 

 cantia, no allusion is made to those occurring on the stamens, and 

 only one or two to those of the gynoecium or pistil. Numerous 

 memoirs have appeared from time to time in the Annales des 

 Sciences Naturelles, Annals of Nat. Hist., Botanische Zeitung, 

 and elsewhere, in none of which can I find any mention of An- 

 droecial hairs, while almost all other portions of the plant have had 

 their trichome structures recorded. Dr. Weiss's special Paper on 

 the subject in Karsten's Abhandlungen I could not obtain, as it 

 does not appear to be in the Library of either the Linnean or 

 Eoyal Societies. 



My attention was first drawn to the subject by observing the 

 dense beard on the stamens of Anagallis tenella, which Sowerby 

 figures as beaded hairs similar to the well-known ones in Trades- 

 cantia. However, the links in the chain are very dissimilar in 



