with dusky red; stigma trifid, long, deeply cleft to the beak of the fruit; nut scarcely half the length of the fruit, and only one-third as broad, narrowed at the base, and finely striated.

A peculiar species with much of the habit, in the lower part of the culms, of Scirpus sylvaticus; the structure of the leaves is somewhat between C. aquatilis and C. riparia. The Norwegian specimens have the leaves more like C. riparia, while those of Russia and Mongolia are between riparia and Scirpus sylvaticus. The spikes are ampullacea-like, but very much stouter, and much like the American Carex bullata Schkuhr. In drying, the fruits become curiously compressed by the apex being forced into the distended portion, and thus giving the spikes an odd aspect.

Roughly, in looking for the plant, it may be said to be a Carex with thick ampullacea-like fruiting spikes, and the leafage and culms of C. riparia.

Over its area of growth it seems to be a sparsely distributed species, and is most abundant in the deep bogs on the river and lake shores in Finland.

The circumstances connected with the discovery of this plant in Britain were attended by a rather humorous scene, which I trust it will not be considered heresy to relate in the grave and strictly scientific pages of this Journal. On August 14th last I was botanising along the marshy shores of Mullaghmore Lough, a lakelet occupying a shallow hollow in the Lower Silurian or Ordovician rocks that cover the central portion of the county of Armagh. Tall plume-like tufts of Cicuta grew around, and the numerous bog-holes were spangled with the white flowers of Nymphæa. Presently my eye was caught by a patch several feet in diameter of a large sedge, growing in the centre of a deep drain some ten feet in width, which communicated with the waters of the lake. It was immediately distinguished from the groves of Carex rostrata which grew around by its taller growth and more glaucous leaves. It grew in between two and three feet of water, the total height of the plant being about four feet. How to get at it was the difficulty. The bottom of the drain was soft, deep mud. The sides were soft peat. I stretched over and examined the clump with my stick. A single fruit-stem was disclosed, much shorter than the leaves, and bearing several stout sessile erect spikes of fruit, with long leaf-like bracts. I again and again tried to hook it in with my stick, but unsuccessfully-tantalizing! Meanwhile, my eccentric movements had attracted the attention of the inhabitants of the immediate neighbourhood. A small boy who had been lying halfasleep under a hedge sat up and stared with all his might at this novel fishing. The cows which he was herding approached cautiously, and stood mystified in a semicircle. A flock of ducks hurried in from the lough to see what was up, and paused within a few yards, expressing their curiosity in loud quacks of enquiry. All was excitement and suspense. Ah! I had got the sedge safely hooked this time. Slowly it was drawn towards the bank, and my hand closed on the stem. Then came the dénouement. The edge of the bank suddenly gave way. There was a frantic spring, and

then a huge splash. The ducks gave one universal quack, and fled from the scene with a prodigious flapping; the cows kicked up their heels, and scattered precipitately; the small boy, convinced that the water-bogie was after him at last, fled from the spot in terror; and the botanist emerged, dripping with mud and water, but clutching firmly in his hand the first British specimen of Carex rhynchophysa !

Unable to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion as to its determination, I passed the specimen to my friend Mr. S. A. Stewart, who returned it, marked "C. rostrata." The general appearance of the plant was so distinct from that of the C. rostrata which grew near, that I was not satisfied with this determination, and sent it to Mr. Bennett. That gentleman has now submitted it to the most rigid examination, and though hesitating at first to add a plant to the British flora on the strength of a single specimen without the clearest proof, he is now convinced of its identity with C. rhynchophysa of C. A. Meyer.

ON SOME CASES OF INVERSION.

BY MAXWELL T. MASTERS, M.D., F.R.S.

THE relative position of particular "members" or tissues is so important a matter morphologically, and from the point of view of systematic botany, that any deviation from the ordinary mode of orientation is worthy of notice. I propose, therefore, in the following note to call attention to a few selected illustrations. The causation and significance of these is probably very diverse, a circumstance that renders it the more desirable that they should be brought together for comparison and ultimate classification.

REVERSED POSITION OF THE XYLEM AND PHLOEM ELEMENTS.

A noteworthy illustration of this occurs in the fruit-scale of Abietineæ, indeed of all the Conifers. In the bract the arrangement is the same as in the leaf, that is to say, the phloem is towards the dorsal surface of the bract, whilst the xylem is directed towards the ventral surface. In the fruit-scale the position is exactly reversed, the xylem is found on the outer or dorsal side, the phloem towards the ventral face. This arrangement points to the conclusion that the scale in question is a "cladode or flattened shoot, a part only of whose vascular system is present. The lower part (which, if present, would complete the vascular cylinder) is undeveloped. It will be remembered that Casimir de Candolle gives a similar explanation of the position of xylem and phloem in an ordinary leaf-blade, but in this case it is the upper half of the vascular system which is wanting. The subject is discussed in my paper on the morphology of the Conifers in the Journal of the Linnean Society, vol. xxvii. pp. 276 and 302 et seq., and need not be further alluded to here.

A common occurrence on the leaves of Yucca flaccida is the production of tubular horn-like processes from the margins. In the central vascular bundles the arrangement is normal, but in those of the tubular portion the position of xylem and phloem is reversed, the phloem being nearest to the axis.

REVERSED ARRANGEMENT OF THE PALISADE CELLS.

The palisade cells are in most instances formed in the proximal or ventral portion of the leaf, but an exception to this is met with in the leaves of Picea ajanensis and some others, where the palisades are formed in the dorsal part of the leaf, the leaves on the lateral, horizontally spreading branches being either bent or twisted at the base, so as to expose the dorsal surface to the light. The stomata are on the ventral surface in this case, but no change occurs in the relative position of the xylem and the phloem.

A similar transposition is often observable in cases of enation from the leaf, thus in the orange an outgrowth from the under surface is sometimes met with, having its ventral or green surface turned in the opposite direction from that of the primary leaf,

thus:-
:-

where the thick lines represent the dark green surfaces, the thin lines the paler surfaces. Occasionally in the Portugal Laurel (Dickson, Journal of Botany, 1867, 322) in Gesnera allagophylla, and constantly in Xanthosoma appendiculatum, similar outgrowths are observable, with a similar transposition of parts. A similar reversal may be seen in the corona of Narcissus, which is an enation from the perianth. In one form of this, figured in the Gardeners' Chronicle for March 31, 1888, p. 405, there are peculiar frilled outgrowths from the corona itself, and in these, according to Dr. Scott, the arrangement of the fibro-vascular bundles is the same as in the perianth segments, but contrary to the arrangement in the corona itself. In the corolla of a Cyclamen from which a frill-like outgrowth proceeded, the orientation of the fibro-vascular cords was the reverse of that which obtains in the corolla itself. Owing, however, to the imperfect differentiation of the tissues, it is not easy or indeed possible to trace the exact relation of the tissues in all of these cases.

REVERSED POSITION OF THE STOMATA.

Although the stomata are by no means confined to the dorsal surface of the leaf, yet they occur there generally in greatest numbers. An exception may be noted in the cotyledons of many Conifers and in the adult leaves of junipers and Picea ajanensis, where the stomata occur chiefly on the ventral surface. It is not necessary to do more than allude in passing to the position of the stomata on the upper surface of the cladode of Ruscus androgynus, which becomes twisted at the base, so that the stomatiferous surface assumes a downward direction.* The development of stomata on the

*

Dickson, "Foliage leaves of Ruscus," Trans, Bot. Soc. Edinb., vol. xvi. part 1 (1885), t. ix.—xii,

morphological upper surface of the leaf, associated with a twist of the leaf, is witnessed in Alstroemeria, Bomarea, various species of Allium, and other monocots. No change occurs in these cases, in the relative position of the xylem and phloem.

INVERTED DISTRIBUTION OF COLOUR.

In a flower of an ordinary Gloxinia the richest colouration occurs in the interior of the tube, in a position corresponding to the ventral surface of the leaf. Occasionally petaloid outgrowths arise from the outer surface of the ordinary corolla, these outgrowths being sometimes so regular as to form a second corolla outside the first. In these enations the deep colour is outside. The thick line in the following diagram may represent the coloured surfaces,

the inner ones the paler portions. In some of these cases the enation forms, by the coalescence of its margins, a complete tube, and when that is the case, the deepest intensity of colour is inside, as in the original flower.

Similarly a peculiar malformation occurs occasionally in Calceolaria in which, in addition to the usual two stamens, a third is developed in the form of a petaloid bag or tube within the corolla, and coloured in the same manner, except that whilst in the corolla the deepest colour is outside, in the petaloid stamen it is inside.*

INVERSION OF THE FLOWER.

In most Orchids the sepals in the adult flower are so arranged that one is posterior and median, the other two are lateral, while the petals are placed alternately with the sepals, and consequently have the lip or odd petal placed anteriorly in the middle line of the flower. This position is generally attributed to torsion of the pedicel, as the original position of the parts is just the reverse of what has just been mentioned. If, on the one hand, no torsion takes place, or if, on the other hand, a complete spiral turn is

The examination of Calceolarias presenting the peculiarities just mentioned, induced me to study the mode of development of the flower. The primary floral tubercle soon loses its hemispherical form and becomes somewhat angular. From one angle the posterior sepal is developed before the others; next in order, and nearly if not quite simultaneously, appear the two lateral sepals, and lastly the anterior sepal. The corolla appears first as an undivided ring, which is soon overtaken in its development by the two lateral stamens, which are produced simultaneously and which are the only two which are developed. When the two stamens are considerably advanced in their development the limb of the corolla begins to be developed in the shape of two lobes anterior and posterior, which are, for a time, of equal size; but the anterior or inferior one speedily increases in size to form the lower lip of the corolla. The pistil is very late in development and consists of two tubercles placed anteroposteriorly. Each becomes somewhat two-lobed before the style is produced, so that when the cavity of the pistil is closed, the pistil is slightly four-lobed. The flower is therefore numerically irregular from the first, and there is no trace of the fifth sepal or petal, nor of the three stamens. Eichler attributes the fourfold calyx to the union, or want of separation of two sepals, but there is no trace of fusion of two sepals.