Chap. IV. LAGEKSTEOEMIA INDICA. 167 



We thus see that -within this genus some species are hetero- 

 styled and trimorphic ; one apparently heterostyled and dimor- 

 phic, and one homostyled. 



Nescea vertidllata. — I raised a number of plants from seed 

 sent me by Professor Asa G-ray, and they presented three forms. 

 These differed from one another in the proportional lengths of 

 their organs of fructification and in all respects, in very nearly 

 the same way as the three forms of Lythrum Qrmgeri. The 

 green-pollen grains from the longest stamens, measured along 

 their longer axis and not distended with water, were yj^of an 

 inch in length ; those from the mid-length stamens f nfe%> a.nd 

 those from the shortest stamens y|^ of an inch. So that the 

 largest pollen-grains are to the smallest in diameter as 100 to 

 65. This plant inhabits swampy ground in the United States. 

 According to Fritz Miiller,* a species of this genus in St. Catha- 

 rina, in Southern Brazil, is homostyled. 



Lagerstroemia Indica. — This plant, a member of the Lythracete, 

 may perhaps be heterostyled, or may formerly have been so. It 

 is remarkable from the extreme variability of its stamens. On 

 a plant, growing in my hothouse, the flowers included from 

 nineteen to twenty-nine short stamens with yellow . pollen, 

 which correspond in position with the shortest stamens of 

 Lythrum ; and from one to five (the latter number being the 

 commonest) very long stamens, with thick flesh-coloured fila- 

 ments and green pollen, corresponding in position with the 

 longest stamens of Lythrum. In one flower, two of the long 

 stamens produced green, while a third produced yellow pollen, 

 although the filaments of all three were thick and flesh-coloured. 

 In an anther of another flower, one cell contained green and 

 the other yellow pollen. The green and yellow pollen-grains 

 from the stamens of different length are of the same size. 

 The pistil is a little bowed upwards, with the stigma seated 

 between the anthers of the short and long stamens, so that 

 this plant was mid-styled. Eight flowers were fertilised with 

 green pollen, and six with yellow pollen, but not one set fruit. 

 This latter fact by no means proves that the plant is hetero- 

 styled, as it may belong to the class of self-sterile species. 

 Another plant growing in the Botanic Gardens at Calcutta, as 

 Ml. J. Soott informs me, was long-styled, and it was equally 



* 'Bot. Zeitung,' 1868, p. 112. 



