OBSERVATIONS ON SOME PLANTS EXHIBITED. 
191 
tubular corolla ; (8) calyx, as a “ saucer ” ; (4) stamens, 
petaloid; (5) various combinations. 
Sweet Peas and Snapdragons. —These afforded good in¬ 
stances of a very great variety of colours—the result of inter¬ 
breeding alone, without any specific crossing whatever. 
Pmnocoma prolifera.— Fine flowering plants exhibited 
by Mr. Balchin, of Hassock’s Gate, and some Rhodanthes illus¬ 
trated the so-called “Everlasting” Flowers, with coloured or 
white and scarious bracts to the involucre. Mr. Henslow 
observed that the little yellow European Everlasting was con¬ 
founded by the ancients with the purple-flowering plant known 
as Amarantus. Dioscorides observed that some people call the 
Heliehryson (the true Everlasting) by the name Amarantos, a 
word signifying “ not decaying,” this word being still used for 
the purple-flowered “Love-lies-bleeding,” of the Order Amarant- 
acese. The phrase “ an inheritance . . . undefiled, and that 
fadeth not away ” (1 Pet. i. 4) is in Greek dpaparros, the name 
of the Everlasting Plant. Pliny described the use made of 
these flowers in his day—in forming chaplets for the statues of 
the gods ; the origin, in all probability, of the circlets of im¬ 
mortelles used so largely on the Continent for funeral decora¬ 
tions. The foliage of the Phasnocoma' is identical in form with 
that of Thuias, high alpine Veronicas of New Zealand, and of 
Salsola Pachoi of North African deserts, &c., showing how 
excessive drought brings about a similar adaptation in the foliage 
of very different plants, but growing in similar though widely 
separated countries. 
Cham^rops Fortunei. —A fine male inflorescence of this 
Palm led the lecturer to speak of the sexes of plants, that of the 
Date being well known to the ancients. Though the knowledge 
of the uses of stamens and pistils was lost in the Middle Ages, 
it was rediscovered in the seventeenth century, if the current 
belief be true that it was Sir T. Millington, Savilian Professor 
at Oxford in 1676, who maintained it; but both Grew and Ray 
soon after seem to have been quite aware of it; while Linnasus, 
of course, based his classification upon it. 
Hybrid Rose. —An interesting hybrid, supplied by Mr. Geo. 
Paul, was that of Bosa canina, grandiflora x B. Indica. The 
hybrid had the stem and foliage much like those of the Dog Rose, 
but more glossy and tinted with red. The buds, with an orange 
