MISS A. M. GELDART ON STRATIOTES ALOIDES, L. 19 7 
and sometimes the stamens are on the same flower with the 
5- or 6- cleft styles.” 
Nolte explains three views, viz : — 
1. Linne’s, according to which the plant is only herma- 
phrodite. 
2. Zinn’s : only dioecious. 
3. Gartner’s : polygamous, i.e., hermaphrodite and also 
bringing forth male flowers. 
According to Nolte, Zinn’s opinion is the only right one. 
Nolte considers that the parts which Linne took for true 
stamens cannot be either perfect or imperfect stamens, but 
must be regarded as a much-rayed nectary, as Roth and 
Richard had already remarked. Nolte’s ground for his 
opinion being that : — 
1. These rays consist of a homogeneous somewhat fleshy 
mass which shows no sign of a loculament. 
2. They contain no trace of pollen. 
3. According to C. K. Sprengel’s observation, each stalklet 
which supports a ray, exudes a moisture (honey) on the outer 
side. 
4. These rays always enclose the outermost circumference 
of the fructification parts and are strongly separated from 
them by their circular or annular attachment. 
5. One never finds a transition in the male flower from 
these parts to a true stamen ; the two parts never occur mixed 
together. On the contrary, the inner parts of the male flower 
possess the form, loculaments, and pollen characteristic of 
true stamens. 
Lord Avebury seems to adopt the German view, saying 
that the plant is dioecious, and that both male and female 
flowers have honey. 
Nolte’s opinion being so much opposed to Sir James Smith, 
Sir JdDd Hooker in the ‘ Student’s Flora,’ Sir W. J. Hooker 
and George Arnott in their ‘ British Flora,’ W. A. Leighton 
(FI. of Shropshire), Dr. Boswell Syme in Eng. Bot. 3rd ed., 
and Withering (whom Nolte does not mention), I was anxious 
to read Klinsmann and Irmisch who, as we have seen, uphold 
Nolte generally, though they do not discuss the structure of 
the flower, and neither they nor Nolte illustrate the flower. 
