[page] 174

— WE owe to the kindness of Mr. DARWIN the communication of the following, with the specimen to which it refers.

"I inclose a specimen of the male Hop with apparently female flowers at the tips of the branches, on the chance of its having some interest for the naturalist. I observed it this morning, and though accustomed to walk Hop grounds for years I have never seen the two sexes on the same Hop plant before. Perhaps, however, it is but the growth of the flower into a male catkin.

FIG. 37.—MONŒCIOUS HOP.

"There are other male plants in the same ground, but I have not seen any other instance of this peculiarity. The whole Hop hill grows in the same way. If we obtain seed, might not it be possible to select a strain of Hops which are uniformly monœcious on the same plant? [Certainly.]

"The Hop ground is in Boughton Monchelsea, facing south, very warm, and of strong rich soil.

L. Lewis, East Farleigh."

We are the more interested in this specimen as many years ago a similar instance was brought under our notice by Mr. MASTERS, of Canterbury, and which formed the subject of an interesting notice from his pen in our volume for 1852, p. 597. The case is interesting with reference to the doctrine of Parthenogenesis. The Cœlebogyne, asserted to produce seeds without the formation of male blooms, has now frequently been seen to produce flowers of both sexes. We saw an instance of this lately in the herbarium of Professor BAILLON, of Paris.