gram. I find
that the pollen of the yellow petal-facing stamens produce more than
twice as much seed as the pollen of the purple sepal-facing stamens.
This is exactly opposed to Lindley's statement--viz., that the
petal-facing stamens are sterile. But I cannot at present believe that
the case has any relation to abortion; it is hardly possible to believe
that the longer and very curious stamens, which face the sepals in
this Heterocentron, are tending to be rudimentary, though their
pollen applied to their own flowers produces so much less seed. It is
conformable with what we see in Primula that the [purple] sepal-facing
anthers, which in the plant seen by me stood quite close on each side
of the stigma, should have been rendered less fitted to fertilise the
stigma than the stamens on the opposite side of the flower. Hence the
suspicion has crossed me that if many plants of the Heterocentron roseum
were examined, half would be found with the pistil nearly upright,
instead of being rectangularly bent down, as shown in the diagram
(620/4. According to Willis, "Flowering Plants and Ferns," 1897, Volume
II., page 252, the style in Monochoetum, "at first bent downwards, moves
slowly up till horizontal."); or, if the position of pistil is fixed,
that in half the plants the petal-facing stamens would bend down, and in
the other half of the plants the sepal-facing stamens would bend down as
in the diagram. I suspect the former case, as in Centradenia I find the
pistil nearly straight. Can you tell me? (620/5. No reply by Mr.
Bentham to this or the following queries has been found.) Can the name
Heterocentron have any reference to such diversity? Would it be
asking too great a favour to ask you to look at dried specimens of
Heterocentron roseum (which would be best), or of Monochoetum, or any
eight-stamened Melastomad, of which you have specimens from several
localities (as this would ensure specimens having been taken from
distinct plants), and observe whether the pistil bends differently or
stamens differently in different plants? You will at once see that, if
such were the fact, it would be a new form of dimorphism, and would open
up a large field of inquiry with respect to the potency of the pollen in
all plants which have two sets of stamens--viz., longer and shorter. Can
you forgive me for troubling you at such unreasonable length? But it is
such waste of time to experiment without some guiding light. I do not
know whether