AND THE ZOOLOGY OF CHINA 83 



Disposition of flowers. — The flowers mostly are dis- 

 tributed in twos or in threes, but trees were observed with 

 the flowers collected in fascicles, in quantities of 6-12. 



Flowers. — The flowers are regular, hermaphrodite, are 

 resting or are on thin peduncles of 1 cm. in length. The 

 receptacular tube is campaniform a little distended at the 

 base covered with indistinct furrows on the foundation 

 green, from above red-brown, with 5-6 sepals. The sepals 

 are oblong-oval, pointed, from the outside red-brown, from 

 inside whitish-red-brown and during the flowering period 

 they are turned back. 



The corolla contains 5 petals, more rarely 6 (only about 

 1-2%), attached to the border of the receptacular tube; the 

 petals of a backward-oval shape are three times longer than 

 the sepals; at the budding stage they are of dark pink colour, 

 but at the flowering pale pink, often of a whitish colour. On 

 some trees with the sitting flowers the corolla frequently is 

 not well developed and is sometimes smaller, than the 

 sepals. Normally the stamens are smaller than the petals 

 or of the same size and when the corolla is not unformed the 

 stamens only are seen. Every flower has 25-42 stamens, 

 which are placed in two rows on the inside border of the 

 receptacular tube. The interior stamens are smaller than 

 the exterior ones and are bent to the pistil. The pistil is 

 unique, sitting on the receptacle; the ovary is upper, 

 oblongly-oval, hairy on the exterior. The style is high, 

 always oblique, smooth with an emarginate stigma. The 

 length is a little smaller than the length of the stamens. 

 Among the flowering apricot trees, i.e., the forms with 

 normal developed flowers sitting on long peduncles, are also 

 met trees on which the normal developed flowers are without 

 peduncles, but among the latter, flowers which have not a 

 normal unformed pistil and ovary, undeveloped corolla and 

 with good formed stamens have been observed. Often whole 

 trees with abnormal developed flowers are seen though fre- 

 quently on these plants the flowers with normal corolla are 

 met, but the ovary and pistil on it is not well developed. 

 Insufficient development of the flowers is a mark that the 

 manchurian apricot is not constant in its appearance, though 

 specimens are seen with the tendency to form it. 



XXIV. Observations on Banana Trees at Foochow. 



The banana trees at Foochow and its environs are very 

 common and are grown almost entirely for decorative pur- 

 poses, but the plants bearing the fruits are not often seen. 

 Here some different forms of Musa sapientum L. and M. 

 paradisiaca L. are observed; besides these indubitably the 



