1880. ] Botany. 199 
lesion, and satisfy myself that they were entirely functionless, 
possessing no stigmatic surfaces, : , 
he important addition which my observations furnished to 
the facts described by Prof. Gray, consisted in the discovery that 
the dimorphism of the flowers extends in a marked degree to 
their dimensions. The staminate flowers are, in all respects, 
much larger than the fertile ones. As this fact at first appeared 
quite remarkable, I took great pains to verify it, making my com- 
parisons from specimens taken from localities widely separated, 
and repeating the observations a great many times throughout 
the flowering season of the plant. It grows on gravelly slopes in 
small areas or patches, and all the flowers in a patch were inva- 
riably found to be of the same kind, either all staminate or all 
fertile, as if all came from the same root, as no doubt they do, 
The amount of surface covered by staminate plants was found 
greatly to exceed that covered by the fertile ones. It thus often 
required considerable search to find a patch of fertile flowers, but 
a little practice was sufficient to render their detection easy from 
the diminished size and conspicuousness of the flowers. This 
difference does not consist merely in the greater vigor and 
turgidity of the staminate form, but represents an actual discrep- 
ancy in the measurements of all the parts of the flower, amount- 
ing to about thirty per cent. in the length and about forty per cent. 
in the width of the corolla. The exact dimensions, as taken from 
typical specimens, were as follows: 
Length of flower including calyx and limb of corolla: 
In staminate fi i 
... 16 millimeters. 
. in fertile lomi. (65 pile nnak, ss 
Width of corolla tube split through and laid open: 
i TOF. cz . 
D SAONIMGIS TOF oo i cag ca ks soos Cenn ta II g 
rle for, ogoi nsike n ee i Bs 
Width of limb of corolla laid open in the same manner: 
n staminate f ‘ 15 z 
fertile form T 9 Z 
Length of the pistil, including ovary and stigma: 
In staminate form, ... ee re oe 9 5 
la fertile fmm. i ceis. a H: <7 - 
tengih of perfect samèns. o.o ionsar o aani esane 9 es 
Length ol WOE Hawt oi ee aap cco basevces 3 z 
The staminate form appears never to develop fruit, although 
ne ovary contains ovules. The fertile form, besides being much 
more rare in actual amount at flowering time, and possessing — 
decidedly less fragrance, also often fails to fruit. It is, therefore, : 
_ Only quite rarely that fruiting specimens can be found. 1 attrib- — 
_ ute this, however, to the failure of most of the. fertile flowers to _ 
_ Téceive any pollen. The two forms are often not in close prox- — 
_imity. They bloom very early in the spring, before most of the = 
_ vying insects appear. The flowers are always close to the ground, 
_ With their open end more frequently inclining downward than ~ 
__§pward, and most of them are concealed under the foliage so 
