NOTE 
THE ANATOMY OF THE STAMENS IN CERTAIN INDIAN SPECIES 
OF PARNASSIA. —The present note forms a supplement to a paper on the 
structure of the androecium in Parnassia which appeared in 1913 in the ‘ Annals of 
Botany’. 1 At that time the only members of the genus whose stamen-anatomy 
I had had the opportunity of examining were the European Parnassia palustris , L. and 
certain American species. However, since the paper was published, I have received 
through the kindness of Mr. G. H. Cave, Curator of the Lloyd Botanic Garden, 
Darjeeling, herbarium material of four species of Parnassia from the Himalayas— 
namely, P. ovata , Ledeb., P. nubicola , Wall., and P. pusilla, Wall, from a height 
of 14,000 feet, and P. Wig/itiana, Wall., collected at a height of 13,000 feet. 
I desire to express my gratitude to Mr. Cave and also to Mrs. Howard of Pusa, and 
Mr. C. C. Calder, Curator of the Herbarium, Royal Botanic Garden, Sibpur, who have 
rendered it possible for me to extend my study of the stamen-anatomy of Parnassia 
to the Indian species. The herbarium material received was treated according to the 
plan described in my previous paper. 2 It was again found that by this method 
serial sections, showing the detailed anatomy of the stamens, could be obtained 
from dried flowers. 
P. nubicola , P. Wightiana , P. ovata, and P. pusilla all belong to the Section 
Nectarotrilobos of Drude, 3 whereas all the species studied in my previous paper were 
members of the Section Nectarodroson. It was thus of some interest to ascertain 
whether the Indian species showed the same anatomical peculiarities as those which 
I have recorded for P.palustris and its allies, or whether those peculiarities were con¬ 
fined to the Section Nectarodroson . The conclusion which I have reached is that, 
as regards the anatomy of the filament, these four Himalayan species closely recall 
those previously examined from other parts of the world. They present a series, 
which I regard as a reduction series, parallel with that which I have described in the 
American species P . fimbriata, Banks, P. montanensis , Fern, et Rydb., and P.parvi- 
flora , DC. 4 
Parnassia nubicola , which is a well-developed plant with relatively large flowers, 
shows features in the anatomy of the filament comparable with those observed in 
P. fimbriata and P. palustris , which it also resembles in size and habit. The xylem 
in the connective spreads and branches, while, in the filament below the attachment 
of the anther, the wood is roughly circular in transverse section, with protoxylem 
elements and sometimes a few thin-walled parenchyma cells occupying an internal 
1 Arber, A.: On the Structure of the Androecium in Parnassia and its Bearing on the Affinities 
of the Genus. Ann. Bot., vol. xxvii, 1913, p. 491. 
2 Arber, A.: 1 . c., p. 492. 
3 Drude, O.: Ueber die Bliithengestaltung und die Verwandtschaftsverhaltnisse des Genus 
Parnassia. Linnaea, Bd. xxxix, N. F., Bd. v, 1875, p. 3T4. 
4 Arber, A.: 1 . c., pp. 495-7. 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. XXIX. No. CXIII. January, 1915.] 
