) (1.) With
long style, perfect stigma, and short abortive stamens. (2.) Shorter style, but
with stigma equally perfect, short abortive stamens. These two female forms
amounted to 20 per cent of the specimens received from one locality in Maine;
but all the fruiting specimens belonged to the first form. (3.) Style long, as
in Number 1, but with stigma imperfect, stamens perfect. (4.) Style shorter than
in the last, stigma imperfect, stamens perfect. These two latter forms are
evidently males. Therefore, as Asa Gray remarks, "the flowers may be classified
into two kinds, each with two modifications; the two main kinds characterised by
the nature and perfection of the stigma, along with more or less abortion of the
stamens; their modifications, by the length of the style." Mr. Meehan has
described the extreme variability of the corolla and calyx in this plant, and
shows that it is dioecious. (7/12. "Variations in Epigaea repens" 'Proc. Acad.
Nat. Soc. of Philadelphia' May 1868 page 153.) It is much to be wished that the
pollen-grains in the two male forms should be compared, and their fertilising
power tried on the two female forms.
Ilex aquifolium (AQUIFOLIACEAE).
In the several works which I have consulted, one author alone says that the
holly is dioecious. (7/13. Vaucher 'Hist. Phys. des Plantes d'Europe' 1841 tome
2 page 11.
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