"M. Aug. St. Hilaire (Sur la Gynobase, _Mem. des Mus. d'Hist. Nat._, tom. x. p. 134), speaking of some bushes of the Gomphia oleaefolia, which he at first thought formed a quite distinct species, says: 'Voilà donc dans un même individu des loges et un style qui se rattachent tantôt a un axe vertical, et tantôt a un gynobase; donc celui-ci n'est qu'un axe veritable; mais cet axe est deprimé au lieu d'être vertical." He adds (p. 151), 'Does not all this indicate that nature has tried, in a manner, in the family of Rutaceae to produce from a single multilocular ovary, one-styled and symmetrical, several unilocular ovaries, each with its own style.' And he subsequently shows that, in Xanthoxylum monogynum, 'it often happens that on the same plant, on the same panicle, we find flowers with one or with two ovaries;' and that this is an important character is shown by the Rutaceae (to which Xanthoxylum belongs), being placed in a group of natural orders characterised by having a solitary ovary." "De Candolle has divided the Cruciferae into five sub-orders in accordance with the position of the radicle and cotyledons, yet Mons. T. Gay (_Ann. des Scien. Nat._, ser. i. tom. vii. p. 389) found in sixteen seeds of Petrocallis Pyrenaica the form of the embryo so uncertain that he could not tell whether it ought to be placed in the sub-orders 'Pleurorhizée' or 'Notor-hizée'; so again (p. 400) in Cochlearia saxatilis M. Gay examined twenty-nine embryos, and of these sixteen were vigorously 'pleurorhizées,' nine had characters intermediate between pleuro-and notor-hizées, and four were pure notor-hizées." "M. Raspail asserts (_Ann. des Scien. Nat._, ser. i. tom. v. p. 440) that a grass (Nostus Borbonicus) is so eminently variable in its floral organisation, that the varieties might serve to make a family with sufficiently numerous genera and tribes--a remark which shows that important organs must be here variable." _Species which vary little._