192 MISS A. M. GELDART ON STRATIOTES ALOIDES, L. 
leaves towards the gibbous side of the spathe ; the fruit 
gradually forming a right angle with the stalk. In districts 
where only the female plant occurs, the fruit remains erect in 
the spathe or protrudes only a little with a slight inclination 
(Nolte t. i. figs. 7, 8, and 13). Yet the latter, Nolte thinks, 
is much more rarely the case, for among some 80 fruits which 
he found at Copenhagen only 8 or 9 were bent. 
It is different at Sutton. A specimen gathered there on 
July 7, 1905, shows that even so early in the season the 
fruit begins to bend soon after the flower withers. At that 
date, plant after plant, in some cases every flowering plant 
had bending fruit, and Nolte’s 10% seemed to be already 
exceeded. Can it be that at Copenhagen the pedicel does not 
develop so readily as in England ? In Nolte, t. i., figs. 7 and 8, 
the pedicel is much shorter than we see it. At Sutton the 
pedicel alters in shape though it does not seem to increase 
much in length after the flower falls. In one of the figures 
of detail in Eng. Bot. the pedicel seems to be just as much 
wanting as in Nolte’s figures. 
\ Among specimens of fruit brought by Mr. Nicholson from 
Sutton on Sept. 25, I found a young fruit still erect showing 
clearly the joint of the pedicel (figs. 2 and 3). The inner 
sheath was entirely wanting. One side of the pedicel at the 
joint was loosely folded, and it is evident that if this fold 
were inflated the pedicel not having a corresponding fold on 
the opposite side must bend. I had observed that the 
integument on the under side of the pedicel is not wrinkled 
when the joint bends, but this is the only specimen in which 
I have noticed the actual fold on the upper side. I cannot 
find any description of it. It looks as though the inflation 
of the pedicel must force the fruit to bend over ; or is it the 
pull of the fruit that forces the pedicel to bend ? 
► Irmisch says that, when at his request, his friend Herr 
Klinsmann sent him ripe seed of Stratiotes late in October, 
1861, the completely ripe fruits had protruded themselves 
with their short thick pedicels between the 2 spathe-leaves, 
some being bent perpendicularly downwards, and some 
standing off from it crooking themselves somewhat upwards 
