ee es 
Fe eT ETE PR ee Te PEE ED ee RE ee Pe ee eT eee ee 
27 
‘ SHORT NOTES. 
Prorerogyny In Eryturma capitata Willd.—Some observations 
which I have lately made on the opening flowers of Erythrea 
capitata Willd. var. <geeid sayin Towns. seem worthy of record. 
length. After a while the corolla grows faster than the calyx, and, 
up to the time it has extended about one-eighth of an inch beyond 
the calyx tips, it remains closed, the tips of the petals meeting so 
closely that no opening between them is visible. But now another 
organ hurries its growth and steals a march upon the corolla. The 
tips of the petals are gradually forced away by the more rapid 
growth of the pistil, and the two flattened disks of the bifid stigma 
—up to this time pressed eat face to face—separate, expand, - 
and become exposed to vi Thus the plant is eminently pro- 
terogynous. Sometimes a ‘stigma- disks protrude a little beyond 
the corolla, but they are always tightly surrounded by the petals, 
so as effectually to prevent access to the stamens. After a few 
days the state of things is again changed; the growth of the 
germen is arrested for a while, while that of the corolla continues, 
so that in a few days it completely redevelopes and encloses a 
germen, hides the stigma-disks, and affords ores . them 
or upper surface, which is a wise provision, for insects are attracted 
to the unopened flowers of the brighter colour, though no honey is 
prepared for them, and hence the blossom is more certainly fecun- 
dated. Only a few flowers of the flowering tuft open at atime. I 
have not noticed whether this peculiar mode of pri is com- 
mon to other species of Erythrea.—FReprericK TowNsEN 
Carex Licerica Gay In Enexanp.—In the autumn ane 1878 Mr. 
J. Caithaah: of Helston, Cornwall, sent me a Carex labelled “‘ Carex 
arenaria, slender form. St. Mary’s, Scilly Isles, July, 1878, J. 
Cunnack.” Having occasion to carefully examine all my specimens 
of C. arenaria, I felt some doubt about the plant, and wrote to Mr. 
J. Lloyd, of Nantes, for living specimens of C. ligerica and C. 
Schreberi, which he o Bei kindly sent; when these rere it 
