214 Mr John Scott on the Sexual Changes 



arranged as above, on distinct axes of the plant, occur 

 more or less irregularly on a single axis. Thus, in specimen 

 No. 1, we have a female monoicous spike ; i. e. a female 

 spike, producing both male and female florets. In this 

 case the basal portion of the spike is normal, presenting 

 several circles of the perfect grain ; the upper and major 

 portion of the spike, on the other hand, has every floret 

 converted into the male form ; each spikelet, be it observed, 

 producing two perfect male florets. In other cases, how- 

 ever, the upper portion of the spike retains its feminine 

 character, while the basal portion assumes the male ; or 

 again, we may have an irregular intermixture of male and 

 female florets over the whole spike. 



The metamorphosis of the female into the male floret is 

 not, however, always complete, and this is more especially 

 so in such cases as the latter, where there is no definite 

 arrangement of the male and female floret. From the 

 special theoretical interest now attached to these imperfectly 

 metamorphosed florets, in their association with others 

 perfectly metamorphosed, I will here describe one or two 

 of the most instructive wdiich have come under my observa- 

 tion. First, In the superior floret of a female spikelet, the 

 style was abortive, ovary rudimentary, squamulee developed 

 (though smaller than those of a normal maZe floret), glumes 

 lanceolate-acuminate ; in the inferior floret the stamens, 

 squamulae, and glumes were perfectly developed ; so that 

 the normally neuter floret of the female spikelet was in this 

 case converted into a perfect male ; whereas a very imper- 

 fect metamorphosis has been effected in the case of the 

 fertile female floret. Again, second, in another spikelet, 

 from a female spike, I found the superior floret presenting 

 all the characteristics of the normal male floret ; while the 

 inferior (though still retaining its neutrality of function) 

 — stamens and pistils being alike abortive — presented by a 

 pair of lanceolate acuminate glumes, and two minute cuneate 

 squamulae, an evident tendency to assume the male form also. 



If we now turn to an examination of the male panicles, 

 we are at once struck with the rare occurrence of the mo- 

 noicous structure in them, as compared with the occurrence 

 of such a structure in the female spikes. Somehow — and 



