318 ON THE CUTICLE OF PLANTS. 
of this plant. The most advanced state (represented at our 
fig. 5.) was scarcely altered in appearance from the ovary. The 
plant is certainly a very remarkable one, and appears to be 
quite overlooked by previous travellers; and is probably 
confined to the district just mentioned. In some respects 
the flowers seem to approach the Passifloree, and Mr. Ben- 
nett (Plante: Javanice Rariores, p. 189) observes that “the 
intimate relation of Flacourtianee (or Prockiacee) with Pas- 
sifloree, Homalinee, and Samydee, is sufficiently obvious.” 
Fic. 1, Flower ; f. 2, hypogynous disk or cup laid open to 
show the pistil; f. 3, transverse section of the ovary; f. 4» 
stamen ; f. 5, immature fruit —magnified. 
A 
On the Cuticle of Plants; by Pror. Huco Mont, Translated 
from the German in Linnea, vol. 16, p. 401, by the REY- 
M. J. BERKELEY. 
(Tas. XIIL.) 
Amongst those organs of plants, which as regards struc- 
ture and development are still extremely obscure, is that 
called the cuticle. After the notion, which resulted from the 
inquiries of the preceding ten years, that the epidermis O 
plants is a layer of cells and not a simple membrane, was 
universally esteemed true, Ad. Brongniart (Ann. des Sc. Nat. 
Série I, 65) showed unexpectedly that an homogeneous 
or granular membrane was separable by maceration from the = 
upper surface of the epidermis,* which was distinct from the Be 
* Link (Element. phil. bot. Ed. 2. 1. 83) refers the discovery of the 
cuticle to Ludwig. It is true that by maceration Ludwig separated & 
membrane from the surface of plants, in which he could find no cells. 
This, however, was the whole of the knowledge he possessed on the sub- 
ject. He was not acquainted with the true epidermis, for he says, (instit. 
regni veg. Ed. 2, $ 345), that the bark consists of cuticle and parenchym + 
his view is also fundamentally the same with that of the many early phy- 
totomists, that the outer coat of plants is a simple membrane. The differ- e 
énce between cuticle and epidermis was established by Brongniart. 
