532 Proceedings of the Royal Society 
ation of the fruit, supplants the now decayed main axis and forms 
the “ autumn rosette.” This autumn rosette, on the approach of 
winter, loses its expanded outer leaves, its central portion remain- 
ing as a firm bulb-like winter-resting bud, the outer leaves of which 
are developed as somewhat fleshy scales. In this bulb-like bud the 
rudiment of the inflorescence for the next season, along with that 
of the axillary bud of the last leaf, is to be seen. On the return of 
warm weather, towards the end of spring, the winter bud expands 
as the flowering rosette, while the axillary bud of the last leaf is 
being developed so as to form the autumn rosette as above described. 
The author’s principal results are as follows : — 
1. The receptacle exhibits irregularity before there is any 
appearance of floral parts, its extremity being obliquely 
flattened downwards and posteriorly. 
2. The calyx, corolla (apparently), androecium, and ovary appear 
first in their anterior part or parts. 
3. The androecium in the young flower consists of two fertile 
stamens superposed to the anterior sepals, and two stami- 
nodes superposed to the lateral ones. The staminodes 
usually disappear at an early period. 
4. The pistil originates as a semilunar elevation to the anterior 
side of the receptacular centre. Its extremities gradually 
extend themselves around that centre until the ovarian wall 
is completed posteriorly. 
5. The placenta is strictly “ free-central ” being always uncon- 
nected with the ovarian wall. It has no barren apex corre- 
sponding to that in Primulacese; and the ovules (which are 
anatropal and present a single integument) appear in basi- 
petal succession over its surface. 
The author drew attention to several monstrosities, chiefly affect- 
ing the pistil. In some of these the posterior (small) lip of the 
stigma was bipartite, and in others the anterior (large) lip was 
tripartite. Combining these monstrosities, he drew the inference 
(which he held to be quite in harmony with the developmental 
facts) that the pistil of P. vulgaris consists of five connate carpels ; 
its bilabiation being comparable to that of the corolla in Utricularia 
minor , where five parts are united into a structure with two entire 
lips. 
