[page] 373

Relation of Stamens and Pistil in Lythrum. -Some time ago, Mr. Charles Darwin sent a paper

to the Linnean Society, in which he described the relation of the elements of sexual apparatus in this plant. The common Loosestrife appears to be trimorphic; that is to say, it presents three modes of arrangement of stamens and pistil in different plants. These are the longstyled, medium-styled, and short-styled. The first has six medium stamens and six short ones; the second has six long and six short stamens; and the third has six long and six medium stamens. Now besides these differences in the length of the stamens, there are as many corresponding differences in the length of the styles; viz., the long, medium, and  short style. Mr. Darwin, with a patience for which he cannot be too highly praised, produced

eighteen artificial unions by fertilizing each kind of stigma with the pollen of the six separate sets of stamens. From these researches he learnt that, as in

[page] 374

structure, so in function, there are three female organs; for when all three receive the same pollen they are acted on differently; and, conversely, the same holds good with the three sets of stamens. The experimenter has also pointed out many other facts of the highest interest to physiological botanists, but for which we must refer our readers to his paper in the Journal of the Linnean Society, vol. VIII. p. 169.