'which have their Sexes dieecious. 317 



sex ; this seems to disagree with Monck's views, quoted in abstract, in Encyc. 

 of Gardening, new ed., § 3302., from the Hort. Trans. V. 168, 169. 



Broussonetz'fl! papyrifera. 



A plant of each sex of this species is in the arboretum of the London Hor- 

 ticultural Society ; and another plant of each sex of it in the arboretum of 

 Messrs. Loddiges, Hackney; as denoted by labels standing prefixed to plants 

 in these places in April 1835. 



Broussonetzfl! papyrifera has " large-lobed leaves, variously shaped ; the 

 foliage of the male and female plant differing so much from each other, that 

 they might easily be mistaken for distinct species." Encyc. of Plants, p. 832. 

 Fig. 13880. in p. 306. of this present Number, represents leaves of one of the 

 sexes. 



The male sex. — Flowers disposed in " a cylindrical catkin. Calyx 4-part- 

 ed." Encyc. of Plants, 817. 



The female sex. — Flowers disposed in " a globose catkin, Calyx tubular, 

 3 — '1 toothed. . . . The fruit is little larger than peas, surrounded with long- 

 purple hairs, when ripe changing to a black purple colour, and full of sweet 

 juice." Encyc. of Plants. Watson has noticed, in his Dendrologia Britannica, 

 that this species flowers and fruits in Britain. In Ee Bon Jardinier, 1833, it 

 is remarked (p. 918, 919.), that one of the modes in which Broussonetia pa- 

 pyrifera may be cultivated is by seeds, and that, to have the seeds efficient, a 

 male plant must grow near the female. 



B. cucullata Hort. is of the male sex, — a fact in the history of it. In Le 

 Bon Jardinier, 1833, it is stated, in p. 919., that B. cucullata Hort. was found 

 (upon a small plant of Broussonetia papyrifera seems implied), and secured 

 in cultivation by grafting, by M. Camuset, one of the gardeners in the King's 

 garden; farther, it is stated that it is very curious in its leaves hollowed into 

 a hood ; that the plant upon which it was found was a male, and that the 

 flowers which B. cucullata has produced are, consequently, male. It is added, 

 that it is already much diffused in the the trade. Is not this B. cucullata 

 Hort. identical with the B. spatulata Hort. of Encyc. of Plants, p. 832., and 

 Loudon's Hort Brit., p. 397. ? If it be, and th& account in Le Bon Jardinier^ 

 be correct, one name will be sufficient for denoting the kind, and this kind 

 must forthwith be deemed a variety. It is remarkable that this most distinct- 

 looking plant is omitted from Sweet's Hort. Brit., 1830. 



In No. 119. of The Penny Cyclopcedia, before commended, is a defence to 

 popular readers of the popular charge against botanists of their expressed 

 opinion, that the nettle and the fig are close akin. The essence of the defence 

 is as follows : — " In structure of stem, leaves, stipules, calyx, stamens, and 

 fruit, these two plants are so ahke, that it is impossible to discover more than 

 one solitary essential character ; namely, that of the position of the young 

 seeds, by which they can be distinguished." As to the herbaceous condition 

 of the nettle, and the ligneous condition of the fig, there are species of nettle, 

 not a few, which are ligneous. Were it otherwise, a ligneous plant is nothing 

 but a herb, that continues to grow many years; and longevity does not inter- 

 fere in any degree with relationship. As to the extremes of structural dif- 

 ference in the mode in which the flowers of the nettle and the fig are arranged, 

 " intermediate forms of arrangement occur which reduce these differences to 

 nothing." In the Roman nettle ( t/rtica pilulifera) the female flowers are 

 collected into round heads. In the genus Procris, which is closely related to 

 the nettles, the flowers are also collected into heads, and, in addition, the part 

 which bears the flower is pulpy. Here is one step towards an assimilation in 

 form to the receptacle of a fig. In the genus Dorstenza, the flowers are borne 

 in a fleshy saucer-shaped receptacle, whose edges are curved inward. Were 

 these edges curved inward till they met and coalesced, the similarity between 

 this receptacle and that of the flowers of the fig would be close, &c. 

 LordnthecB. 



Fiscum album. This is stated to flower in May. The female-flowered 

 plants may be ascertained in autumn and winter by their bearing berries, out 



