MISS A. M. GELDAHT ON STRATIOTES ALOIDES, L. I99 
though I think it still remains to be proved whether pollen 
from such anthers is capable of producing perfect fruit.* 
The Curator of the Botanical Department of the British 
Museum reports that ripe seed of Stratiotes is unknown at 
the Museum, and that it probably does not occur in England. 
N.B. — Ripe seed must not be looked for before the middle 
of October. 
Mr. Nicholson and I have not yet detected an anther on 
Stratiotes at Sutton. I wished to postpone my paper, but 
Mr. Nicholson urged me to show Nolte’s book and to give 
some account of it ; and we hope that this is only a preliminary 
to further study of the plant next season, in which we should 
like to enlist the help of other members. May I suggest 
as points for special observation : — 
(1) The presence of anthers and pollen in the British 
Flower. 
(2) The development of the pedicel and its join 
(3) And especially of the fruit and seed. 
(4) The age to which an individual plant lives, and its 
date of flowering. In Eng. Bot. eel. i, Smith says, “ A stoloni- 
ferous plant and truly perennial, though each root dowers 
but once, as in some species of Saxifraga, Sempervivum, etc.” 
(5) The degree of hibernation of Stratiotes in England. 
Do the plants lose all their leaves in a mild winter ? or merely 
rest at the bottom of the water and rise again the following 
year with the same leaves, young leaves developing in the 
centre ? 
I wish to record my best thanks to Mr. Arthur Bennett 
and to Mr. Nicholson for much kind help ; to Mr. J. H. Gurney 
for the use of books from the Library of the Linnean Society ; 
to Mr. Clement Reid, Mr. G. C. Druce and other correspondents, 
and especially to Mr. Eustace Gurney for permission to use 
and examine specimens. 
* Stamens and pistils are generally found in the same flower, but they have 
been sometimes observed to be on different plants ; and where they are found in 
the same flower, the anthers have been found to be barren. Linn. (Withering’s 
Arr. Brit. 1’lts., vol. iii. p. 4S6, 4th ed.). Stamens numerous, some of them 
often fertile, so that the female plant alone frequently fruits. (E. B., 3rd ed. 
vol. ix. p. So). 
