"^june'M^sjr'"}  Aralla  spinosa,  L.,  Hedera  Helix,  L.  273 
The  most  remarkabhi  part  of  this  process  of  development  is,  that 
the  whole  of  this  first  series  of  female  flowers  should  open  so  long  be- 
fore  the  male  ones  come,  that  they  fall  unfertilized.  Most  part  of  the 
second  series  also  fall,  and  the  crops  of  seeds  is  mainly  made  up  of  a 
few^  of  the  last  opening  ones  of  the  section,  and  the  comparatively 
few  hermaphrodite  ones  which  are  found  in  those  of  the  third  class. 
It  is  a  matter  for  curious  speculation  what  special  benefit  it  can  be  to 
the  plant  to  spend  so  much  force  on  the  production  of  female  flowers 
too  early  to  mature,  and  then  producing  such  an  im.mense  mass  of 
pollen  to  go  utterly  to  waste. 
It  may  not  be  amiss  \o  note,  that  in  the  common  carrot  the  earlier 
strong  umbels  have  often  a  male  flower  in  the  centre  ;  and  that  while 
the  usual  flowers  are  (<f  a  pure  w^hite,  this  one  is  a  crimson  color.  In 
the  central  umbels  of  Aralia  spinosa^  and  at  times  on  spurs  along  the 
branchlets  of  the  panicle  are  similar  colored  processes,  so  small  that 
their  form  cannot  be  made  out  by  a  common  pocket  lens.  Our  fellow 
member,  Dr.  J.  Gibbons  Hunt,  makes  them  out,  under  the  dissecting 
microscope,  to  be  vase-like  forms  with  five  minute  reflexed  segments, 
and  with  a  small  solid  disk  in  the  centre.  It  is  interesting  as  evi- 
dently being  a  successful  attempt  of  an  abortive  flower  to  simulate  in 
some  respects  a  real  one  of  another  character. 
Examining,  also,  the  flowers  of  the  allied  European  Evergreen  Ivy, 
Hedera  Helix^  L.,  I  find  similar  laws  of  distribution  of  the  sexes  as 
in  Aralia  spinosa^  with  the  addition  of  a  somewhat  difi"erent  structure 
in  the  male  from  the  female  flowers. 
In  Europe  the  plant  is  described  as  often  having  a  single  umbel  as 
a  flower  spike.  It  is  quite  likely  in  these  cases  the  flov/ers  are  her- 
maphrodite. In  all  the  cases  I  have  met  here,  the  inflorescence  is  a 
compound  of  several  umbels, — a  terminal  one — female,  and  the  lateral 
ones  male,  as  in  Aralia.  But  there  are  rudiments  of  stamens  in  the 
flower,  and  in  occasional  instances  I  find  a  filament  developed  ;  but 
never,  so  far,  with  any  polleniferous  anthers.  The  flowers  of  the 
central  female  umbel  have  rather  longer  and  stronger  pedicles  than 
the  lateral  male  ones.  The  calyx  is  united  with  the  ovarium  for  one-half 
its  length,  and  the  latter  much  developed  in  the  unopened  flower.  In 
the  male  the  segments  of  the  calyx  are  two-thirds  free,  and  the  petals 
are  much  longer  than  in  the  female  flowers. 
As  in  Aralia  spinosa,  the  male  flowers  do  not  open  until  some  time 
after  the  female  ones  ;  and  not  before  some  of  the  latter,  impatient 
of  delay,  have  fallen  unfertilized. 
18 
