32 THE BOTANICAL MAGAZINE. [Vol. xxix. No. 339. 



The species is said to be widely distributed from the 

 Himalayas, India, Malaya to China, Loo-choo and Japan. 

 Here in Japan, 1} it is found all the way from the extreme south 

 up to the central provinces, and, therefore, it is very well 

 known among our botanists. Curiously enough, however, no 

 one has ever observed or even found its flowers, but only its 

 fruit. It has been our general opinion that the plant yeilds 

 fruit by what is called parthenogenesis, and, therefore, that it 

 is a plant in which the male flowers are entirely wanting. It 

 should have furnished excellent material for those interested in 

 the study of apogamy. 



It was some time ago that Professor S. Kusano of the 

 Agricultural College and Dr. Y.Miyagi of our laboratory almost 

 simultaneously made microtomic sections of this species for the 

 purpose of studying this very phenomenon, of which they 

 supposed it to be an example. They found, however, perhaps 

 to their disappointment, in a series of consecutive sections, a 

 male flower with anther-cells full of beautiful pollen-grains. 

 Thus, they ascertained conclusively the existence of male flowers 

 on the plant. 



It is mainly due to the said gentlemen that I was led to 

 study more carefully the floral structure of this interesting 

 species. Now it happened that I was engaged in working up 

 all the species of Viscutn collected in Formosa, at the very time 

 when I had the opportunity of examining one of the preparations 

 made by Dr. Miyaji. On glancing over a section of a male 

 flower, my attention was immediately attracted to a difference 

 between it and several other Visca, then familiar to me. I 

 took, as I am accustomed to do, a biocular microscope with 

 object-glasses a 2 and looked attentively to find another male 

 flower on my very rich collections of the same species. To my 

 surprise and delight, I found the male flower to be entirely 

 and even fundamentally different from that of a true Viscutn. 

 The male flowers of the latter have the stamens invariablly 

 arranged opposite the perianth-lobes, as is universally the case 



1) Matsumura, J., Index Plantarum Japonicaruni II.-2, p. 49. 



