1865.] Botany and Vegetable Physiology. 85 



pentagonal depression or cavity of the staminal tube. Thus, these 

 groups are oppositisepalous in Malope, and oppositipetalous in Kitai- 

 belia. Payer had observed the difference in this respect between the 

 two genera, but has in his ' Organogenie ' inverted the statement of the 

 facts, and, iinfortunately, at some detail (pp. 34, 5). The develop- 

 ment of five pairs, alternate with the sepals, of longitudinal series of 

 mammillae, and the subsequent development of each mammilla into 

 two stamens, so exactly corresponds with what Payer has shown of 

 the development of the stamens of Malvaviscus — where he has shown, 

 besides, that the staminal tube is formed by the coalescence of five ori- 

 ginally distinct staminal bosses or cushions superposed to the petals, 

 similar to those in the majority of polyadelphous plants — that there 

 can be no doubt that in Malope and Kitaibelia, as well as probably in 

 all the other Malvaceae, the androecimn consists essentially of five com- 

 pound stamens superposed to the petals. The difference in the deve- 

 lopment of the inside of the staminal cushion depends not on any 

 difference in the position of the compound stamens, but probably on 

 the constitution of the central depression — that is, of the termination 

 of the floral axis ; for it is easy to understand that the cells from 

 which the carpellary groups are to be developed may be capable of 

 conditioning the form of the cavity of the staminal cushion in accord- 

 ance with the position of these groups. Such considerations, of 

 course, do not at all go to explain why the carpellary groups should be 

 differently placed in the two genera. An equally remarkable and some- 

 what analogous case occurs in Tiliaceoz, where Payer has shown that 

 the staminal groups are oppositipetalous in Tilia, and oppositisepalous 

 in Sparrmannia. 



Professor Heer has examined the plants found under the ancient 

 lacustrine habitations in Switzerland, more especially those discovered 

 at Eobenhausen and on the Lake of Pftefikon. The vegetable remains 

 are almost all carbonized. At Eobenhausen, Wangen, Lake Constance, 

 Moosedorf, in the centre of Berne, the Isle of St. Pierre, and other 

 localities he finds among cultivated plants Triticum vulgare, L., two 

 varieties, T. turgidum, L., T. monoicum, L., T. dioicum, L., T. Spelta, 

 Hordeum hexastichum, L., H. distichum, L., Avena sativa, L., Secale 

 cereale, L. The culture of the last (common rye) appears much later 

 in history than that of the other cereals. Setaria italica is also found, 

 which, according to Caesar, was the principal cereal of the ancient 

 Helvetians. In the more recent habitations three Leguminous plants 

 are found — the common bean, the common pea, and the lentil. Among 

 the fruits found are apples, and. the drupes of Prunus insititia, P. Padus, 

 and P. spinosa. A species of flax allied to Linum perenne is also found. 

 Among the remains of wild plants are the raspberry, strawberry, elder, 

 water chestnut (Trapa natans), hazel, beech, Silene, Papaver Khoeas, 

 juniper, Scotch fir, spruce, yew. Also seeds of aquatic plants, such 

 as Scirpus lacustris, Ceratophyllum demersum, Potamogeton, Polygo- 

 num Hydropiper, Galium, Pedicularis, Menyanthes, Nymphaea alba, 

 Nuphar luteum, and N. pumilum. 



From careful examination of two fossil cones of Lepidodendron, 



