NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 649 
most vigorous stems, or, as they would be technically called, 
woody axes, produced the female flowers. 
Woxrrta Braziiensis IN Micuigan.—On June 25, 1871, I 
found the Wolfia Braziliensis Wedd. var. borealis, in the River 
Rouge, a tributary of the Detroit emptying a few miles below our 
city. The little plants grew rather sparingly with W. Columbiana 
Karsten, and Lemna polyrrhiza L. Though the W. Columbiana, 
in general its associate, has been found in the east, the W. Brazil- 
iensis has not, I believe, been met with there. For those not 
acquainted with it, I will state that it is easily distinguished from 
the former, even with the unassisted eye, by its subacute, oblong 
fronds, bright green and shining above, and pale beneath. It is 
further distinguished by being contracted or somewhat concave 
. above, denser and less cellulose, by its more numerous stomata, 
and by being marked more or less with brown dots. It is also 
not so much submerged as the W. Columbiana, but floats on 
the surface of the water, the intensely green upper part lifted 
quite above it, bearing some resemblance to a little boat. Some 
botanists take the Braziliensis to be a form of the W. arrhiza of 
Europe. — Henry Giritman, Detroit, Michigan. 
ÅNTHERS or ParwnasstA.—In the ‘‘Journal of the Linnzan 
Society,” vol. xi, Mr. A. W. Bennett published, two or three years 
ago, an interesting article upon Parnassia—its structure, affini- 
ties, and its mode of fertilization. I am now to remark only upon 
its anthers, which are generally described as extrorse. Mr. Ben- 
nett, observing that the present writer, in the ‘‘Genera of North 
American Plants Illustrated,” describes the anthers as introrse, and 
gives a drawing of P. Caroliniana as an illustration, proceeds to 
say: “I do not, however, find any other observer to agree with 
Prof. Gray’s observation in this respect, except two American 
botanists, Dr. Torrey and Mr. Chapman, who have probably bor- 
rowed their descriptions from him; nor do any specimens of this 
species which I have been able to examine pe any departure ` 
in this respect from the ordinary type of the gen 
It is easy to show that Dr. Torrey’s obec at least, is 
independent and original. In his “Flora of Northern and Middle 
States,” published in 1824, p. 326, he described the anthers of P. 
Caroliniana as “incumbent ;” in his “New York State Flora,” 1843, 
