AmAJu0gU,rx^7h7arm  }        Medicinal  Plants  at  Banbury.  41 1 
rather  interesting.  The  flowers  are  proterogynous,  the  stigma  becom- 
ing mature  and  viscid  before  the  anthers  open,  and  the  stigma  and  nearly 
half  the  style  are  protruded  beyond  the  unopened  flower  bud.  The 
corolla  is  more  deeply  divided  in  its  lower  half  than  elsewhere,  and  the 
stamens  and  pistil  are  depressed  towards  this  portion,  so  that  insects 
visiting  the  flower  for  nectar  must  pitch  upon  the  stamens  and  receive 
the  pollen  upon  their  legs  or  abdomens,  and  must  thus  almost  of  neces- 
sity convey  it  to  the  protruded  stigma  of  the  unopened  flower.  When 
the  corolla  is  fully  grown  it  exceeds  the  stigma,  so  that  the  style  does 
not  appear  to  grow  in  proportion  to  the  corolla.  The  anthers  are  fur- 
nished with  a  curious  connective  of  a  narrowly  triangular  form  into 
which  the  filament  tapers.  As  soon  as  the  anther  bursts  it  becomes 
bent  backwards  away  from  the  stigma  and  towards  the  ovary  as  if  to 
prevent  the  pollen  from  falling  on  the  stigma  of  the  same  flower.  Mr. 
Usher  informs  me  that  the  annual  variety  does  not  possess  a  long  pro- 
truded style,  but  as  he  had  no  plants  growing  I  was  unable  to  verify 
this  observation.  It  would  be  interesting  to  ascertain  if  the  henbane 
is  dimorphic,  and  if  the  annual  plant  is  the  second  form.  Another  in- 
teresting point  of  inquiry  is  whether  the  plant  possesses  the  power  of 
digesting  the  multitude  of  minute  insects  which  late  in  the  season  are 
caught  by  the  clammy  glandular  hairs.  The  frequent  occurrence  of 
henbane  on  manure  heaps  or  places  in  which  insects  are  abundant  seems 
almost  to  point  to  such  a  property. 
White  Poppy. — The  culture  of  this  plant  is  attended  with  so  much 
trouble  and  expense  that  it  scarcely  repays  the  labor  expended  on  it. 
The  seed  has  to  be  selected  very  carefully,  for  singularly  enough  the 
poppy  shows  a  constant  tendency  to  "  sport,"  and  if  left  to  itself,  the 
flowers  of  the  white  poppy  become  colored  in  a  few  generations  ;  the 
size  of  the  capsule  decreases,  and  the  color  of  the  seeds  and  of  the 
flowers  becomes  darker  in  proportion,  until  at  length  the  flowers 
become  purplish  black,  and  the  seeds  quite  black.  Mr.  Usher  accounts 
for  this  fact  by  supposing  that  insects  carry  the  pollen  from  the  wild 
red  poppy  [Papaver  Rhaas,  L.)  to  the  white  one. 
In  order  to  get  large  capsules,  only  the  very  whitest  seeds  are 
retained  and  sown.  Those  poppies  which  have  dark  flowers,  he  states, 
produce  darker  colored  somewhat  oblong  capsules.  The  German 
poppy  seed  produces  a  large  capsule  much  flattened  at  the  top  and 
bottom,  and  with  the  carpels  strongly  convex  and  prominent  so  as  to 
