SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
101 
BOTANY AND VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY. 
The Existence of two Forms in several Species of Linum . — The beautiful 
discoveries of Mr. Darwin relative to the fertilization of Orchids and 
Primulse have led him to inquire into the nature of this process in the 
flax tribe, and the results of his researches are quite as remarkable and 
interesting as any he has yet put forward. He finds that in the large 
flowered crimson flax two distinct forms of flower exist ; in one the pistil 
being twice as long as the united styles and stigmas of the other. In that 
with the long pistil, the styles are erect, but in the other the five stigmas 
diverge and pass between the stamens to the base of the corolla tube. He has 
observed that the pollen of either form is unable to fertilize its own ovules, 
the stigma producing no action upon it; but when pollen from an opposite 
form is placed upon the stigma, the tubes are developed in a few hours. 
In Linum per enne the same two forms, long and short-styled, are present ; 
but the stamens of the long-styled flowers are only half the length of those 
with the short styles ; moreover, in the first variety, the stigmas turn round 
so as to face the circumference of the flower about the time it expands . What 
is the object of this divergence of stigmas in L. grandiflorum ? The nectar 
secreted by the flower being found at the outer base of the stamens, the 
insect is oblige^ to insert its proboscis between the petals and stamens, and 
thus the foreign pollen is attached to the stigmatic surface. As in Linum 
perenne the stamens are of different lengths, so w r ill pollen of different 
kinds be attached to the insect at two distinct levels, and will thus be 
brought in contact with the stigmas to which it is adapted. Mr. Darwin 
remarks: — “ In plants which are fertilized by the wind, the flowers do not 
secrete nectar ; their pollen is too incoherent to be easily collected by insects ; they 
have not the bright-coloured corollas to serve as guides , and they are not , so 
far as I have seen , visited by insects .” — “Journal of the Linn. Soc.” 
Relation of Botany to Palaeontology. — At the late meeting of the British 
Association in Newcastle-on-Tyne, Professor Balfour, President of the 
Natural History Section, made some interesting comments on the necessity 
of being thoroughly conversant with botanical science before attempting 
to draw conclusions as to the relations of fossil plants to each other and to 
the present vegetable kingdom. Numerous errors have been made by 
palaeontologists, owing to an ignorance of botany. “ Fronds of ferns, of 
different external forms, had been described as distinct fossil species, or 
even genera — the geologist not knowing that very different forms of frond 
were exhibited by the same species of fern in the present day. Again, 
another error had arisen from the same form of frond being considered as 
indicating the same species, whereas the same form did occur in different 
genera in the present flora, and these could only be distinguished by the 
fructification, which in fossil ferns was rarely seen.” It was also shown 
that a conclusion might be drawn from the presence of palm-leaf, to the 
effect that at the period when it lived there must have been a tropical 
climate in its locality ; but this conclusion was liable to be incorrect, from 
the circumstance that in the present day we find palms at high latitudes, 
