332 OLEISTOGAMIO FLOWEKS. Chap VIII. 



and the gardener detected that they were the product 

 of minute bud-like bodies, three or four of which 

 could sometimes be found on the same umbel with the 

 perfect flowers. They were quite closed and hardly 

 thicker than their peduncles. The sepals presented 

 nothing particular, but internally and alternating 

 with them, there were fiye small flattened heart-shaped 

 papillae, like rudiments of petals ; but the homological 

 nature of which appeared doubtful to Mr. Bentham 

 and Dr. Hooker. No trace of anthers or of stamens 

 could be detected ; and I knew from having examined 

 many cleistogamic flowers what to look for. There 

 were two ovaries, full of ovules, quite open at their 

 upper ends, with their edges festooned, but with no 

 trace of a proper stigma. In all these flowers one of 

 the two ovaries withered and blackened long before 

 the other. The one perfect capsule, 3^ inches in 

 length, which was sent me, had likewise been de- 

 veloped from a single carpel. This capsule con- 

 tained an abundance of plumose seeds, many of which 

 appeared quite sound, but they did not germinate 

 when sown at Kew. Therefore the little bud-like 

 flower which produced this capsule probably was as 

 destitute of pollen as were those which I examined. 



Jimeus bufonius and Mordeum. — All the species 

 hitherto mentioned which produce ■ cleistogamic 

 flowers axe entomophilous ; but four genera, Juncus, 

 Hordeum, Cryptostachys, and Leersia are anemophi- 

 lous. Jimeus bufonius is remarkable* by bearing in 

 parts of Eussia only cleistogamic flowers, which con- 

 tain three instead of the six anthers found in the 

 perfect flowers. In the genus Sordeum it has been 



• See Dr. Ascherson'a interesting paper in 'Bot. Zeitnng,' 1S71, 

 p. 551. 



