377 



Peach Nosegay. — Flowers deep bright peach 

 color. Very free bloomer, splendid truss, plain leaf. 

 First-rate and distinct. 



Rebecca. — Cherry color; fine truss; dwarf com- 

 pact habit ; very profuse. The finest bedding Gre- 

 ranium yet raised. 



St. George. — Dark chestnut, shaded with black- 

 ish crimson. Quite unique ; very free and effective. 

 An entirely new color among Pelargoniums. 



Salmon Nosegay. — Flowers pure salmon ; large 

 truss. Grood. 



Sir J. Paxton. — Flowers true orange, very 

 bright; fine large truss. A splendid variety for 

 massing. 



Wood Nymph. — Salmon pink. Large and fine. 



Changes of Sex in Flowers. — The change 

 in sexual characteristics, which is manifested by the 

 formation of pollen within the tissues of the Ovule, 

 has not, to the best of my knowledge, been recorded 

 in any other case than that of a Passion flower, ob- 

 served by Mr. S. J. Salter, and described and fig- 

 ured by him in the Linngean Transactions, (vol. 

 xxiv., p. 143). To this we are now enabled to add 

 a similar illustration in some flowers of a wild Rose 

 [Rosa arvensis), recently gathered and examined by 

 ourselves. In these flowers the calyx was normal, 

 the petals reduced in size, with some tendency to 

 become foliaceous ; the carpels presented nothing 

 unusual, but the stamens showed almost every pos- 

 sible degree of change between their ordinary con- 

 dition, and that of carpels. 



Perhaps the most common deformation was one 

 in which what, under ordinary circumstances, would 

 be the filament of the stamen, bore, in the centre, 

 an anther ; below that organ, two ovules, or unim- 

 pregnated seeds, like the natural ones, but wholly 

 uncovered, while above the pollen sacs the filament 

 was prolonged in the form of a long, often tortuous 

 gtyle, terminated by a trumpet shaped, fringed 

 stigma. 



So far, there was nothing but what may be seen 

 very commonly in double or partially double flow- 

 ers ; but on examining some of the ovules, it was 

 found that, while retaining the form and semblance 

 of ovules, they had, nevertheless, assumed some of 

 the characters of anthers. For instance, in many 

 cases beneath the superficial layer of tissue there 

 was a stratum of those spheroidal cells containing a 

 network of thick fibres, such as we expect to see in 

 an anther, but do not expect to meet with in an 

 ovule. Moreover, there was a considerable quanti- 

 ty of well formed pollen in the substance of the 

 ovule. 



Reserving for another opportunity the full de- 

 tails of this extraordinary case of personation, we 

 content ourselves, in this place, with recording the 

 fact, and of drawing attention to the physiological 

 interest attaching to it. We do not suppose that in 

 this Rose the pollen would have any effect upon the 

 ovule in which it was formed, because there were 

 so far as we could see, no traces of embryo sac or 

 germinal vesicle, but only a solid, cellular nucleus ; 

 on the other hand, supposing the pollen liberated 

 in some way from the ovule in which it was formedl 

 what is there to prevent its fertilizing the stigmas 

 of adjacent carpels, or even the contiguous un- 

 covered ovules, some of which were perfectly organ- 

 ized, though as far as we saw they were unimpreg- 

 nated? — Gard. Chron. 



Professor Faraday died recently, at Hamp- 

 ton Court, in his 73d year. He was born in 1794 in 

 the parish of Newington Surrey, and, like many 

 others who have illustrated the page of British his- 

 tory, was entirely a self-made man. His father was 

 a smith, and he himself, after a very imperfect ele- 

 mentary education, was apprenticed to a bookbinder 

 in Blandford Street. He was however, already in- 

 spired with the love of natural science. 



His leisure was spent in making such chem- 

 ical experiments as were within his means, and he 

 ventured on the construction of an electrifying 

 machine, thus foreshowing the particular sphere of 

 his greatest future discoveries. He was eager to 

 quit the trade for the humblest position as a student 

 of physical science, and his tastes becoming known 

 to a gentleman who lived in his master's neighbor, 

 hood, he obtained for him in 1812 admission to the 

 lectures which Sir Humphry Davy, then in the 

 plenitude of his powers, was delivering at the Royal 

 institution. Mr. Faraday not only attended the 

 lectures, but took copious notes of them, which he 

 carefully re-wrote and sent to Sir Humphry, beg- 

 ging his assistance in his desire "to escape from 

 trade and to enter into the service of science." 

 Sir Humphry promptly answered the appeal, and 

 after warmly praising the powers shown in the notes 

 of his lectures, expressed his hope that he might be 

 able to meet the writer's wishes. Early in 1813 the 

 opportunity came. The post of assistant in the 

 Laboratory in Albemarle street became vacant, 

 and Sir Humphry conferred it upon Mr. Faraday, 

 and thus commenced the connection between Fara- 

 day and the Royal Institution which only termi- 

 nated with his life. Shortly alter his appointment 

 he accompanied Sir Humphry Davy in a visit to 

 France, Italy, Switzarland, &c., returning to his 

 place in the Royal Institution in 1815. He now 



