In your article on Euadenia eminens, published in Dec. No. of the Gardeners' Monthly, I find some observations respecting the regularity and irregularity of flowers, in relation to their attitudes (or positions), which to me are very interesting. Never before had I seen in print any allusion to the subject; but, nevertheless, I can say that it was not to me a new one. In fact I had made it the subject of a paper which I had read last winter before the Society of Natural Sciences of this city and of which a portion will appear in the next Bulletin of the Society, now in the printer's hands. I then took occasion to say that I believed that it was the first time that any portion of the scientific world had had its attention called to the matter which I was about to present to their attention, and that, I believed my conclusions as well as the observations from which they were drawn were absolutely original. This I said because I had given a very considerable time to the inquiry, whether in the discovery which I had to announce respecting the correlation of the forms and position of flowers, I had trod, unconsciously, in the footsteps of others.

The result of my research had been an utter failure to find, in text book or treatise, any reference whatever to a fact which I regarded as of high importance in the science of botany. Your article confirms me in the opinion that I had in fact not been anticipated. I would gladly send you a copy of my paper, at once, but for the fact that in a few weeks, at farthest, my observations will find their way to the public through what seems to me their proper channel. I will then send you a copy.

I cannot, without greatly exceeding the limits of a letter, present you with all my conclusions. The leading ones may, however, be summarized in two propositions :

I. A flower, completely regular, is, normally, either erect or pendulous, in position.

2. A flower, which is irregular, is, normally always lateral in position.

These propositions seem to be in harmony with the suggestions of your article. In all the instances in which they seem to be antagonized by the fact, I found but little or no difficulty in reconciling the seeming exception to the rule.

What I have meant by these two propositions would be made clearer by the citation of examples, which might be indefinitely extended. It will suffice, however, to call attention to the Ranuncu-laceae alone. The flowers of Aquilegia, for instance (always regular), are in some species erect, and in others pendulous; whilst Delphinium and Aconi-tum (allied genera), bear their irregular blossoms invariably in a lateral position. Of course I do not ignore the fact that many flowers, with corollas nearly or quite regular, open vertically, as some species of Lilium and Amaryllis; but in these instances it will, I think, be invariably found that the stamens are declined.

I have noted, also, this suggestive fact. Where the flower is erect in its attitude, the stamens exceed the pistils, more or less in length, e. g., Aquilegia chrysantha. And when the flower is pendulous, the pistils exceed the stamens in length, e. g., Aquilegia Canadensis. In either case the stamens being above the pistils. So far, also, as my observation has extended, where in the Monopetalas, the blossoms are declined or pendent, the pistils exceed the stamens in length. Of course, these peculiarities of organization mean always self-fertilization and nothing else. Cross-fertilization, in such instances, can happen only by accident. Every wind, sufficient to shake the ripened pollen from the anther-cells, causes it to fall upon the stigmas beneath.

The very interesting cases, which you cite, respecting the behavior of some Gloxinias and Gesnerias, were entirely new to me; but they tend in a remarkable degree, to confirm the truth of my two propositions. But can you tell me whether the change of form, in the flowers of Gloxinia and Gesneria, from regular to irregular, or rather from irregular to regular, is accompanied by the change in the relative length of stamens and pistils, which I have here pointed out? I think that such will prove to be the fact. [The Editor does not remember, nor has he the opportunity at hand to examine].

At the close of my paper, I requested the co-operation of all the botanists of the society in an effort to detect and report such examples of flowers, whether of the garden or the wilds, as really or apparently, militated against the propositions presented in my paper. The result has been, I think, that all or nearly all of them are satisfied that the propositions are true. Buffalo, N. Y., Dec. 6.