Botany and Zoology. ; 71 
of the ordinar y flowers self-fertilize without expanding or full 
rine their development; but in others these comparatively . 
nute and ever-closed flowers are profoundly modified paca 
Narsityss in reference to — function. Dr. Kuhn, in 1867, gav 
them the appropriate name of flores ea teh cleistogamic, or 
as we prefer auepainoushe flow The literature of the subject 
gathered 
known of these blossoms is condensed. e cannot here attempt 
a recapitulation. In brief, “ they are conastenida for their small 
size and fi rer opening so that they resemble buds; their 
e 
petals are rudimentary or quite aborted; their stamens are often . 
; F 
educed in number, with the anthers of very small size, contain- 
ing few pollen-grains, ee have remarkably thin transparent 
coats, and which generally emit their tubes while still enclosed 
within the anther-cells; and lastly the pistil is much reduced in 
~~ with the stigma ‘in some cases hardly a . “es oo 
quently insects do not visit them; nor if they “id aan see find 
h flow 
an entrance. Suc wers are therefore invariably self-fertilized ; 
Indee : 
insects ; in some, such as Orchids, they are dependent upon this 
agency for such fertility as peat possess. 
Cleistogamous flowers are known in about twenty-four natural 
orders, yet not ina larg caabed of genera. The list given by 
y 
enlarged; but in one particular it may be diminished, for Auellia, 
Dipteracanthus, and Cryphiacanthus are really all of one genus. 
original pula — and irrespective of this var 
rushes and grasses, ” Among the latter, it is singular that one of 
the earliest: ee n and strongly marked cases, that of Ampht- 
carpum (Milium amplicanpem Pursh), — be overlooked. 
Since this notice was written, Mr. Pringle has announced to us 
the serbia ’ a flowers re regularly ooeunriny within 
the leaf-sheaths of Danthonia spicata a 
and other on 
