Jan. i, 1880] 



NATURE 



217 



the Sultan of Bikavi they had established a BtHion, commencing 

 operations by rescuing abandoned infant?. The Abbe Debaize, 

 011 the other hand, had been twice deserted by his porters, had 

 been plundered of a great prat of his outfit, and had returned 

 tick and discouraged to Ujijl, where the Algerian and English 

 missions were nursing him. It was not known whether he 

 would recommence the exploration intrusted to him by the 

 French Government. 



The death is announced of Prof. Wappreus, of Gcittingen, 

 an indu 1 geographer. 



The newly-established Geographical Society of Rochefort 

 has just issued the first number of their Bulletin, the more note- 

 worthy contents of which are a piper by M. L. Delivaud on 

 the Portuguese in Central Africa before the seventeenth century, 

 and another by M. Silvestre on Indo-China. 



ON THE HETEROSTYLISM OF " MELOCHIA 

 PARVIFOLIA " 



HJELOCIIIA PARVIFOLIA, H.B.R. (nova gen. et spec, 

 pi. v., 325) is a very common plant on the dry plains in 

 the neighbourhood of Caracas, where it flowers nearly all the 

 year round, and not only in the month of January, as Kunth says 

 in his description, which in all other respects is a very complete 

 and good one. I was led to notice the heterostylism of this plant 

 when comparing carefully Kunth's words with a specimen I had 

 brought home. Humboldt's specimen belonged to the long- 

 styled form, for Kunth says : — Stamina fetalis dimidio breviora, 

 ■in. Mine was short-styled, so that I 

 found these proportions to be inverse. I searched immediately 

 our sabanas (or plains) for long-styled plants, and came at once 

 across a considerable number of both forms. A comparison of 

 their flowers gives the following result : — 



Short-styled I .' 

 . Stamens as long as the 



petals. 

 :. Styles scarcely half as long 



as the stamens. 

 !. Stigmata with few and 



papillae. 

 .. Styles without stellate hairs. 

 . Pollen grains : — 



a. Dry, globular, dram, 



o '044 mm. 



b. In water, globular, 



diam. o"o6omm. 



<-. In ale. abs., globular, 



diam. o'036mm. 



Lou -styled J 

 Stamens half as long as the 



petals. 

 Styles as long as the petals. 

 Stigmata witli many and 



rather long papillae. 

 Styles with stellate hairs. 

 Pollen grains : — 

 a. Dry, elliptical, obtusely 

 triangular in cross- 

 section, diam. CC44 x 

 C024 mm. 

 /'. In water, globular, 



diam. CV052 mm. 

 c. In ale. abs., 



diam. CVO40 x 0'02S 

 mm. 

 (My measurements were made with a glass micrometer by 

 Oberhau-er, five divisions of which are equal to 0'02 millimetres 

 for the enlargement I used.) 



It would appear that the protoplasm of the pollen-grains of 

 the short-styled form contains.! larger percentage of water, their 

 -Ait shrinking more in alcohol than that of the pollen-grains of 

 the long-styled form. 



Although the heterostylism of Melochia fan-i/b/ia. might be 

 fairly admitted from the stated morphological differences, I was 

 desirous to try by experiments whether there was also a func- 

 tional difference, as Darwin and Hildebrand have done in the 

 case of other heterostyled plants. 



Both forms of Mdochia parvijvlia seem to be equally common 

 in our flora. This I ascertained in the following manner : — On 

 the Sabana de San Lazarc, where this plant constitutes all the 

 higher vegetation, together with Turntra ulmi folia, Pasonia 

 cancdlata, and Ily/tis suaveolens, all the plants of Mdvchia were 

 examined in a square, the side of which was 100 steps. There 

 were altogether forty-two plants, twenty with long-styled flowers, 

 and twenty-two with short-styled ones. In one single plant of 

 the former two short-styled flowers were discovered, in all the 

 rest each plant had 'only one kind of flower. I collected seeds 

 from both forms, and began last year my experiments by sowing 

 them in cases placed in one of the yards of my house in town. 

 This circumstance' was perhaps of some consequence, the yard 

 being surrounded by walls 12 feet high, so that there could be 

 next to nothing of the influence of the wind, just the reverse as 

 in the open field. 



Ten seeds taken from plants with long-styled flowers produced 

 eight plants, which this year flowered, all the flowers being long- 

 styled ones. 



Ten seeds of the short-styled form gave nine plants ; two of 

 led before setting flowers ; the remainder produced 

 in due time a large number of short-styled blossoms. 



The last summer was very rainy, thus not at all favourable to 

 experimental research connected with artificial fecundation. 

 Hoy ever, I tried my best, and obtained the results given in the 

 following table, which is constructed according to Darwin's 

 models in his " Forms of Flowers" : — 



iB !iJ Ht 



I think the favourable influence of cros -fertilisation is evident, 

 as in no other case the average number of seeds per capsule 

 reached the normal number, although there were some few 

 capsules in the other crops which abo contained five seeds. 



In the open field the flowers of Mdochia parvifolii are visited 

 by large numbers of small hymenoptera, which fly about during 

 the hottest hours of the day, when these flowers are open. They 

 have no particular smell, and fade very soon ; on cloudy or 

 rainy days they do not open at all, so that not a few wither 

 before getting fertilised, which accounts for the considerable 

 number of seedless capsules to be found on nearly every plant. 



The seeds of my crop appeared to be of good quality (their 

 specific weight being greater than that of water). I have sown 

 them already in separate lots, in order to find out how far they 

 will germinate and produce strong and healthy plants, and which 

 forms of flowers these latter will have. A. Ernst 



Caracas, November 2 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE 



Cambridge.— Next term, at Cambridge, practical anatomy 

 in the dissecting-room will commence on January 17. The 

 professor of anatomy is to be assigned (as to his fellowship) to 

 King's College, and not to Caius, as originally proposed ; it was 

 thought more advisable not to assign two professorial fellowships 

 in medical science to Caius, but rather to divide the association. 

 Prof. Paget is especially fitted to receive further honour from 

 Caius College, and we trust he will ultimately attain the 

 mastership. 



Prof. New ton announces that his lectures will recommence on 

 February' 2 ; and the demonstrator will take an advanced class 

 on Sauropsida, beginning on the same day. 



1 Normal number of seeds in Mdxliia par-cifdia. 



1 The plant was left to itself, foreign pjllen being excluded by a fine 

 muslin-bag tied around it. The numbers show that self-fertilisiiuon was 

 difficult in this case ; though in the open field, where the wind has its full 

 sway, it may be much easier, and perhaps more frequent. 



3 The plant was treated as stated in the foregoing note. Self fertilisation 

 is no doubt easier in this case, but the result of the crop was not very good. 



