192 Linncean Society. 



Rafflesiacece may perhaps be of some use in discriminating them ; 

 but thinks it necessary to observe that in Nepenthes distillatoria of the 

 Calcutta Botanic Garden, the most marked instances of ovuta ana- 

 tropa and antitropa are to be met with in the ovaria at their mature 

 state, to which circumstance he attributes the discrepancies in the 

 accounts of the direction of the radicle of the ripe seed of that genus. 

 His observations on Hydnora were made on specimens of H. africana 

 both in the dry state and in pyroligneous acid sent to him by Mr. 

 Harvey from the Cape of Good Hope. He regards the anthers as 

 indefinite, and describes the stigma as " discoideum, trilobum, e la- 

 mellis plurimis in placentas totidem pendulas undique ovuliferas pro- 

 ductis," a structure which, if correctly determined, appears to him 

 to present another objection to the placentary hypothesis of M. 

 Schleiden. He also notices the apparent opposition of the lobes of 

 the stigma to the lobes of the staminal column. In regard to the 

 composition of the pistillum he hesitates between regarding it as 

 highly compound and analogous to Papaver and Nymphcea, the space 

 between each lamella corresponding with a carpellary leaf, and each 

 lamella itself being compound, or considering it as made up of only 

 three parts, to which latter opinion his own observations and those 

 of Mr. Harvey would lead. 



Mr. Griffith's observations on Cytinus are derived from specimens 

 of C dioicus, Juss., also sent to him from the Cape of Good Hope 

 by Mr. Harvey. He follows Jussieu and Endlicher in referring the 

 Cape species to the genus Cytinus. He regards the terminal teeth 

 or lobes of the staminal column as productions of the connectivum, 

 and not as rudiments of stigmata ; and believes the anthers to be 

 unilocular. 



To his remarks on Cytinea Mr. Griffith appends an account of two 

 Asarineous plants, natives of Malacca, Thottea, Rottb., ^mdAsiphonia. 

 To the description of the former of these given by Rottboll from 

 Koenig's MSS. he adds several particulars. Of the latter, discovered 

 by himself, he gives the following generic character : — 



AsiPHONIA. 



Perianthium sequale, rotatum, tripartitum, tubo nullo. Stamina 8 — 10, 



uniseiiata; filamentis nullis. Stigma discoideum, sinuoso-lobatuni. 



Pericarpium siliquaeforme, 4-loculare, 4-valve, polyspermum. Semina 



tvigona, rugoso-papillosa. 

 Fvntex subscandetis, facie Piperis fruticoscs cujusdam ; articulis tumidis. 



Folia venatione melastomaceo-piperoided. Corymbus terminalis ; spicis 



paucijloris ; floribus siirsiim secundis hibracteolatis. 



AsiPHONIA PIPERIFORMIS. 



Hah. in Provincia Malacca, ad margines sylvarum primsevarum, copiose 

 versus Ayer Puimus Rhim. 



Mr. Griffith points out the near relationship of this genus to Bra- 

 gantia, Lour., from which it is chiefly distinguished by the absence 

 of any tube to the perianthium, its cordate sessile anthers, and dis- 

 coid sinuate stigma. He suggests, however, that it may possibly be 



