46 NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 
FERTILIZATION OF PLANTS. — Professor Hildebrand states that plants 
intermediate between the Papaveraces and the Fumarie gavé the greatest 
quantity of seeds when impregnated with the pollen of another individ- 
ual of the same species; less when the pollen was taken from another 
ped of the same individual, and least when the impregnation took place 
within the flower itself. For Eschscholtzia d the proportion of 
seeds in these three cases was as twen y-four to nine to six. Professor 
Fewzl says that he obtained giovani of seeds iri two species of 1 
on on by fecundation with pollen from other individuals, and that 
hese operations are best "nd between eight and nine A.M 
pesca 
Ix Fours.—In the September number of the Natrurauist, G. F. M. 
mentions a Trillium erythrocarpum having its parts in fours. I have in 
my collection a similar specimen of T. sessile, found on the Salamonie. 
Also a specimen of T. recurvatum from the same pier A petet its parts 
in iir two leaves, sepals, petals and stigmas, and f 
November number, C. J. S. speaks of a ad aa of ped Mays, 
Psal the floral organs have changed offices. I have often observed this 
freak in the fields; grains among the staminate flowers, and staminate 
flowers surmounting the rachis. I have also seen the entire fascicle of 
staminate flowers transformed into a tuft of little green blades. — R. H. 
FisuEn, Arba, Indiana. 
ANDROGYNOUS INFLORESCENCE. — Such inflorescences have been found 
on Zea, Populus, Fagus, Carpinus, Betula humilis and B. alba, as also on 
Pinus nigra; the small scale, considered as a [part a the female blossom, 
developing itself into an anther. — Nature. 
- 
ZOÓLOGY. 
ELATION OF THE PuvsrcAL TO THE BronoGcicaL Scrences. — With 
reference to those branches of science in which we are more or less | 
concerned with the phenomena of life, my own studies give me no right — 
to address you. I regret this the less because my predecessor and my 
probab | 
eminence in this department. But ope I may be permitted, as a 
physicist, and viewing the question from the physical wide, to express t 
you my views as to the relation which the physical bear to the S iiion 
sciences. 
No other physical science has been brought to such perfection as 
mechanics; and in mechanics we have long been familiar with the idea 
of the perfect generality of its laws, of their applicability to bodies 
organic as well as inorganic, living as well as dead. Thus in a railway 
€ when a train is suddenly arrested the passengers are thrown 
ward, by virtue of the inertia of their bodies, precis ely a ing t 
s4 laws which regulate the motion of dead matter. So: trite has the cum 
