and on the Structure o/"Hydnora africana. 241 



I have also to state, that an extensive and highly important essay, entitled 

 " An Attempt to analyse Rhizanthece," by Mr. William Griffith, has been read 

 during the present season before the Linnean Society, of which an abstract is 

 given in the Proceedings. From this essay I have here introduced the cha- 

 racter of Sapria, a new genus belonging to Rafflesiacene ; and have ventured 

 to propose an alteration of the trivial name from Himalayana to Griffithii, 

 in honour of the discoverer of this interesting addition to the tribe Rafflesiece, 

 whose species, with one exception, have names similarly derived. 



RAFFLESIACEtE. 



Chab. Diff. Ord. Perianthium monophyllum regulare. 



Corolla nulla. 



Stamina : Antherae numerosae, simplici serie. 



Ovarium : placentis pluribus polyspermis, ovulis orthotropis (sed in quibusdam recur- 

 vatione apicis, penitus vel partim, liberi funiculi quasi anatropis). 



Pericarpium indehiscens polyspermum. 



Embryo indivisus (cum v. absque albumine). 



Parasiticae radicibus rariusve in ramis plantarum dicotyledonearum. 

 Obs. Huic ordini appendendse Apodanthes et Pilostyles, quae a Rafflesiaceis Corolla tetra- 



petala et Antheris 2-3-seriatis diversae; necnon quod in caule aut ramis solum nee 



unquam in radicibus parasiticae : attamen pluribus notis Cytineis conveniunt. 



and -which he extends to Phaenogamous plants generally, in some respects different from that taken hy 

 M. Mirbel, who considers the nucleus of the ovulum, in its earliest state, as inclosed in its coats, which 

 gradually open until they have attained their maximum of expansion, when they again contract around 

 the nucleus, and, at the same time, by elongating, completely inclose it. Mr. Brown, on the other 

 hand, regards the earliest stage of the nucleus as merely a contraction taking place in the apex of a 

 pre-existing papilla, whose surface, as well as substance, is originally uniform, and that its coats are 

 of subsequent formation, each coat consisting, at first, merely of an annular thickening at the base of 

 the nucleus, which, by gradual elongation, it entirely covers before impregnation takes place. 



" But this mode of development of the ovulum, he remarks, though very general, is not without 

 exception ; for in many, perhaps in all, Asclepiadeee and Apocinex, the ovulum continues a uniform 

 cellular tissue, exhibiting no distinction of parts until after the application of the pollen tube to a 

 definite part of its surface, when an internal separation or included nucleus first becomes visible." — See 

 a translation of this abstract in Annul, des Sc. Nat. ser. 2*^', torn. i. p. 369. 



