824 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



observation of interesting points. The author has obtained new facts on 

 pollination and fertilisation, on development of the embryo-sac, on embryo, 

 seed, and germination, and on the development of the primary tissues. 

 The perennial species of Juncus have an incomplete embryo, but the 

 annual species of Juncus and the species of Luzula have a perfect 

 embryo. An antipodal tissue is developed in Luzula. The primordial 

 leaves are distinct from those of the mature plant in some species. The 

 paper is well illustrated, and, as most of the figures are those of British 

 species, will be found useful. — W. G. S. 



Juniper, Hermaphrodite Flowers of the Common. By Otto 

 Renner (Flora, xciii. 1904, pp. 297-300 ; 3 cuts). — These have 3-4 sterile 

 whorls, 2-3 of leaves (stamens) bearing 2-4 pollen whorl of 



small sterile leaves sometimes absent, and a whorl of carpels. They are 

 proterogynous. This is the second record of herrnaphrodism in Gupres- 

 sinece, the first in the genus Junipcrus. — M. H. 



Kalanchoe Dyeri. By N. E. Brown (Dot. May. t. 7987).— Native 

 of Nyasaland. Nat. ord. Crassulacece . This is 2 to 2J feet high, with 

 opposite spreading leaves, the blade being 4 to 1\ inches long. Inflores- 

 cence a corymbose cyme of pure- white tubular flowers. — G. H. 



Kalanchoe Hybrid, A. By Sir William Thiselton-Dyer (Ann. Bot. 

 vol. xvii. No. 66, p. 435 ; with plates 21-23). — The hybrid treated of in 

 this note is the remarkable K. kewensis, raised by Mr. Watson, Curator at 

 Kew, between K. jlammea ? and K. Bentii $ . It is remarkable because 

 of its extreme unlikeness to either parent, and it is remarkable, apart from 

 all the philosophy relating to hybrids, because of its striking features. 

 Its leaves are pinnatisect, and are therefore widely divergent from the 

 stiletto-shaped leaves of K. Bentii, and tbey are still more unlike the 

 obovate leaves of K. flammea. The flowers are bright pink, those of 

 K. jlammea being orange, and of K. Bentii white. 



The author writes : " When two distinct species are crossed, one would 

 expect, a priori, the offspring to exhibit a ' blend ' of the parental 

 characters, and this appears to correspond largely with experience. Thus 

 I hirwin states : 4 As a general rule, offsprings in the first generation are 

 nearly intermediate between their parents' (Variation of Plants and 

 Annuals, ii. 48). Such cases occur in nature, and before their real origin 

 was understood they were regarded as intermediate species. Thus Geuvi 

 intermedium stands between G. rivale and G. urbanum. But Bell Salter, 

 by crossing these two species, proved it to be a hybrid. The rule is, how- 

 ever, by no means invariable, and Romanes, writing in 1881, remarks : 

 1 Until recently the interest attaching to hybridism was almost entirely of 

 a practical nature, and arose from the fact, which is of considerable im- 

 portance in horticulture, that hybrids are often found to present characters 

 somewhat different from those of either parent or species ' (Encycl. Brit. 

 xii. 422). Darwin states the same fact : 1 When two races or species are 

 crossed, there is the strongest tendency to the reappearance in the off- 

 spring of long-lost characters possessed by neither parent nor immediate 

 progenitor' (loc. cit. ii. 48)." Referring to the origin of the pinnatisect 



