298 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 
flowers, which may be regarded as special cases, there are many in 
which pollen is already mature when the bud opens. Why did not 
was, or was not, affected by the net? Again and again the pre- 
sumed sterilizing effect of the net is put forward, but in every case 
such effect is deduced, not proved. Similar absence of experimental 
proof is noticeable elsewhere in connection with the primrose. The 
writer criticizes Darwin’s assumption that, because insects visits 
were not observed during the day, the flowers were t erefore 
pollinated by nocturnal insects. But he himself is in exactly the 
same position, when, failing to see diurnal visits, he assumes that. 
nocturnal do not take place. Both positions are unjustifiable with- 
out experiment. 
in’s statement that the pollen of Linum perenne and 
other flowers is in its action on the stigma of the same flower 
’ 
himself with criticizing the previous workers’ methods and results. 
is disappointing. There is too much of criticism, too 
i we are no 
Abweichende Bliiten heimischer Orchideen mit einem Riickblick auf die 
der Abietineen. By Dr. K. Gustav W. Srenzen. 410, pp- 
tt. 6. Stuttgart: Nagele. Price 28 marks. 
Tux malformation of the flower of endemic orchids is treated in 
detail by Dr. Gustay Stenzel in a recent number (Heft 56 of 
the Bibliotheca Botanica. In an introductory chapter the author 
discusses the value, from the point of view of morphology, ° 
malformations generally, with special reference to the female cone 
of Abietinee. He reviews the various cases which have been 
described by himself and others, from Alexander Braun onwards, 
and their bearing on the vexed question of the morphology of the 
cone 
cases where they present a series of transitional forms. 
As regards the orchids, the author has confined himself to cases 
of departure from the normal type occurring in endemic species 
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on the other from conversion of one floral member into another. 
he former is much the larger class, and includes the following 
ions :—dimerous flowers, two-leaved flowers, one-leaved flowers; 
cohesions, tetramerous flowers, pentamerous flowers, fissions, and 
