90 ME. T. MEEHAN ON THE PIlODUCTION OF

brated in his neighbourliood. Indeed, so favourably has it been received, that I have been requested to procure considerable quan- tities, both for distilling spirit and for feeding cattle. The Bassicc family is the only family I know which yields a flower in sufficient quantities for feeding cattle and distilling spirit on a large scale. potatoes, maize, and barley, which are principally used, are costly in production and uncertain in their yield ; but the Mahwa crop never fails. The oldest inhabitant in Monghyr had never heard of a season when the Mahwa crop was not abundant ; for whether the fruit subsequently forms or not, the corolla is certain to be there, and certain to fall in great profusion. The extraordinary keeping-qualities of Mahwa form also a further recommendation to its introduction into England. Before leaving India, I had a ton shovelled into sacks aud put on board a vesRel in Calcutta. They were gathered in April 1876, and, after being kept for nearly two years, are as good as when first dried. No weevil, apparently, attacks these flowers as they attack grain.

India would benefit greatly if Mahwa flowers met with a demand in England. The vast forests of Ma,hwa trees, which now yield little profit to their owuers, would soon become a source of wealth ; and the collection of the corollas would give work to thousands of poor people who at present inhabit the rocky country where the Mahwa grows.

To sum up the merits of the Mahwa-flowers for diatilling-pur- poses and feeding cattle, they are :-1, cheapness; 2, unlimited supply ; 3, certain yield j 4, nourishing qualities ; 5, good keep- ing-qualities.

The fruit which follows after the corollas have fallen, yields seeds from which a greenish-yellow oil is produced. This is used to adulterate ghi or clarified butter. This substance has some com- mercial importance, inasmuch as it is worth $35 a ton for soap- making, according to Mr. Cooke's report on oils and oil-seeds of India.

an the Laws governing the Production of Seed in Wistaria By THOMAS MEEHAN, Germantown, Philadelphia. sircensis.

Communicated by the Rev. G. HENSLOW, F.L.S. ac. [Read March 7, 1878.1

THE Academy of Natural Sciences of Pbiladelpliia did me the honour of publishing, in the l€ith volume of its ' Proceedings '

SEED I N WISTARIA SINENSIS. 91

(1866, p. 40l), a paper from my pen on the Consumption of Force in overcoming Gravitation by Plants. of experiments and observations, showing that the effort of a plant to elevate itself above the surface of the earth was a heavy draft on nutrition, and just so much diverted from vegetative growth.

One of my illustrations was fufiished by the common Chinese Wistaria. When a branch is allowed to run along the ground, over a tree or fence, or nailed against a wall, or is in any way sup- ported instead of having to support itself, it grows with wonderful rapidity. I have known branches under these circumstances grow 30 feet in one season ; and I believe much greater growths than this are on record. In America nurserymen make tree Wistarias by training a branch up a stake to any given height, which after two or three years is able to sustain the head when the stake is taken away. No matter how rich may be the soil, or how favour- able may be the circumstances under which the plant is growing, the most vigorous annual growths on these heads seldom exceed 3 or 4 feet. I know of perhaps one hundred of these tree Wis- tarias from ten to twenty years old in my own vicinity; and I have never seen one that ever made a shoot which in one season touched the ground, though the stems may not have been more thanfrom 4 to 6 feet high. Similar facts are set forth in detail in the paper I have referred to.

In 1868 I made another observation on these (‘ tree Wistarias,” which was also published in the same ‘ Proceedings ’ (see vol. xx. p. 314, 1868), that these “ t ree” forms produced seeds abun- dantly, while those which were supported by extraneous means rarely yielded any.

It is a matter of common note that the Wistaria, as usually seen both in America and Europe, rarely seeds. Of course vege- table physiologists had already known that a distinction had to be made between vegetative force and reproductive force. They are not antagonistic; but one grows out of or supplements the other. A young tree does not commence seed-bearing till the exuberance of its early life is checked. To some extent the two forces do seem antagonistic. The youngest and most vigorous tree can be made to flower if a ring of bark be taken from it ; and a graft from a vigorous young tree produces fruit very soon when worked on n tree of bearing age, though its parent tree may not assume the reproductive condition for years to come. Still the antagonism is not distinctive ; for there is a manifest coexistence between the two forces.

I gave an account -

92 ON THE PRODUCTION OF SEED IN WISTARIA SINENSIS.

Physiological writers may not have called attention to these different forms of vital force as pointedly as I have done here ; but there is no novelty in the facts. The matter I wished to draw attention to in the last paper I have noted above, was that the production of fruit in the W i s t m i a was an additional proof that the vegetative force was considerably drawn on by the self- sustaining position of the Wistaria, as evidenced by the activity of the reproductive forces.

Recent contributions to vegetative biology, especially in rela- tion to the value of cross-fertilization by insect agency, lead me to believe that some further facts in the life-history of WGtaria may be acceptable to botanists.

As before noted, the Wistaria, as ordinarily seen, produces no seeds. It flowers abundantly. One would suppose that the facts I had already published would show that the failure to seed was a matter of nutrition, as regulated by the relative condition of the two before-named forces ; but attention has been drawn to it in connexion with the visits of insects, and the failure to pro- duce seed is supposed to arise from the fact of bees not cross- fertilizing the flowers. Bees visit the flowers in great numbers, but they always bore the corolla from the outside instead of entering the mouth ; and the inference is drawn that the flowers do not perfect their seed, via. being presumedly dependent on their own pollen.

I may here remark that the raceme is made up of nearly a hundred flowers, borne on pedicels which become gradually weaker from the base to the summit. Governed by what we have called to mind of vegetative power, the last one to open on the raceme we may call t i e weagest. I now find that when seed is formed there is seldom more than one legume on the branch; and that one is from the last flower on the raceme in nearly all cases. I n a few cases the fruitful flower is not absolutely the last ; and in perhapa 2 or 3 per cent. of the cases there may be two legumes on one raceme ; but the second one is far on towards t i e end.

Keeping in view what has been said of the distinct forms of vital force, I would say that only when the reproductive has gained some advantage over the vegetative force is seed assured.

I submit these facts as proving that the failure of the Wistaria to produce seeds under cultivation has no reference to questions of pollinization by either direct insect or other aid, but that it is a question of harmonious relationship between the two nutri- tive powers. --