ON SOME GASES OF INVERSION. 85 
then a huge splash. The ducks gave one universal quack, and fled 
from the scene with a prodigious flapping; the cows kicked up their 
heels, and seattered precipitately; the small boy, convinced that 
the water-bogie was after him at last, fled from the spot in terror; 
and the botanist emerged, dripping with mud and water, but 
clutching firmly in his hand the first British specimen of Carex 
rhynchophysa ! 
Unable to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion as to its determi- 
nation, I passed the specimen to my friend Mr. 8. A. Stewart, who 
returned it, marked ‘“C. rostrata.” The general appearance of the 
clearest proof, he is now convinced of its identity with C. rhyncho- 
physa of C. A. Meyer. 
ON SOME CASES OF INVERSION. 
By Maxwert T. Masters, M.D., F.RB.S. 
Tux relative position of particular “ members” or tissues is so 
important a matter morphologically, and from the point of view 
of systematic botany, that any deviation from the ordinary mode of 
orientation is worthy of notice. I propose, therefore, in the 
following note to call attention to a few selected illustrations. The 
fe Pay ; : 
g ly v diverse, a 
circumstance that renders it the more desirable that they should be 
brought together for comparison and ultimate classification. 
REVERSED POSITION OF THE XYLEM AND PHLOEM ELEMENTS, 
A noteworthy illustration of this occurs in the fruit-scale of 
Abietines, indeed of all the Conifers. In the bract the arrange- 
ment is the same as in the leaf, that is to say, the phloem is 
towards the dorsal surface of the bract, whilst the xylem is 
directed towards the ventral surface. In the fruit-scale the posi- 
Journal of the Linnean Society, vol. xxvii. pp. 276 and 302 et seq., 
and need not be further alluded to here. 
p22 
