Notes . 
380 
No. 2. ON A MONSTROUS FLOWER OF NELUMBIUM 
SFECIOSUM, WILD. — Masters and Penzig record the occurrence of 
double flowers and petaloid stamens as the sole monstrosities known 
amongst flowers of Nelumbium speciosum. In a flower of this plant 
which I obtained at Whampoa (Southern China) there is a considerable 
metamorphosis in the carpels, so the specimen appears worthy of de- 
scription. Unfortunately before I saw the flower all the parts had 
withered and dropped save a few of the inner stamens and the carpels. 
The stamens display several stages of petalody. The least modified 
stamen consists of a thin filament, the upper portion of which bears 
a very narrow elongated four-winged petaloid process ; above this 
region the filament is continued as a thread and bears at its 
summit a club-shaped, slender, unlobed, 1 -chambered anther. Within 
the papillose epidermis of the anther are several layers of cells with 
brown cuticularised walls ; the cells in the centre are thin-walled, 
are densely filled with starch, and are connected with the brown- 
walled cells only at certain spots by strands of starch-containing 
cells. A more petaloid stamen exhibits a broad flattened portion, 
much longer than an ordinary stamen, possessing at the middle 
of its broad summit a tiny knob which represents the anther. 
The knob is 2, 3, or 4-lobed, but is only 1 -chambered. Its 
structure resembles that of the club-like anther previously described 
except that there are smaller masses of starch-containing cells, and 
they are interspersed with spongy parenchyma the cell-walls of 
which are partially converted into mucilage. The petaloid portion 
has neither brown-walled subepidermal cells nor aggregations of 
starch-containing cells. In a still more modified condition of the 
stamen the knob is reduced to a minute dark-coloured tooth. In 
the stamens the pollen-producing tissue is probably represented by 
the masses of starch-containing cells, and not by the brown-walled 
cells; though the latter, when isolated, look something like in- 
completely developed pollen-grains. 
The carpels are changed into tubes, about two inches in length, 
each with a slit-like aperture at its apex. Style, stigma and ovules 
are not differentiated. 
No. 3. ON THE EMBRYO OF PETROSAVIA, BECCARI. — 
Petros avia is a small Liliaceous plant described by Beccari as parasitic 
on roots. It was only known to occur in Borneo, but recently Mr. 
Ridley has discovered the plant in the Malay Peninsula, at Perak, and 
