310 Linnaan Society. 



before noticed, but I had no doubt, on inquiry, of this being the 

 increase of the few plants I first brought from Booterstown. In the 

 way then I have stated, the Anacharis made its appearance in this 

 neighbourhood, where I believe it is still confined : I have not seen 

 or heard ot its being elsewhere in Ireland, though it increases 

 equally fast here as it does in England. There are now some 

 millions of plants in our pond, and as many more destroyed since it 

 was first introduced." 



Read also, some observations " On the correQtness of the position 

 assigned to Oxycladus in the Family of BignoniacecD." By John 

 Miers, Esq., F.R.S., F.L.S. &c. 



Mr. Miers states, that after a careful consideration of the argu- 

 ments advanced at the last Meeting by Dr. Seemann, he sees no 

 reason to alter his conviction as to the proper position of the genus 

 in question. Dr. Seemann contends that Oxycladus is too anomalous 

 in form to be admitted among Bignoniaccce on account of its fruit, 

 which is a hard monospermous nut, with the seed suspended from 

 near the summit of the cell, and of its embryo, which has large 

 fleshy cotyledons, while there are no wings developed on the testa ; 

 and maintains that on these grounds it rather belongs to Myoporacecc, 

 with which family it agrees better in habit, having broom-like branches 

 terminating in a spine, and especially with the genus Bontia, with 

 which it agrees in its hard nut, and which it approaches in the 

 country of its origin. Mr. Miers on the other hand believes that it 

 is easy to oppose to these arguments a number of facts, showing 

 that Oxycladus presents far greater discrepancies in relation to the 

 Myoporacece than to the Bignoniacecc. In MyoporacecE, in nearly 

 all cases, the leaves are alternate ; the flowers have always didyna- 

 mous stamens, without any rudiment of a fifth ; the ovarium is only 

 bilocular in two instances, which he has elsewhere shown (Ann. Nat. 

 Hist. 2nd Ser. xi. 439) are doubtful, or at least abnormal genera 

 of the order ; in nine other genera the .ovarium is distinctly four- 

 celled, with a single ovule suspended from the apex of each cell, and 

 this ripens into a four-celled ligneous indehiscent nut, with a seed 

 in each cell. The only remaining case is Bontia, which differs 

 from all others of this family in having originally a bilocular ova- 

 rium, but where by the subsequent growth and inflexion of the 

 placentae, eight pseudo-cells are produced, each with a single sus- 

 pended ovule. This ripens into a hard indehiscent eight-celled nut, 

 each cell producing a single seed, with a thick osseous testa, which 

 is often confluent with the sides of the cell. Mr. Miers's knowledge 

 of this genus is derived wholly from the descriptions of authors, and 

 he finds no observations of a more recent date than those of Gaertner 

 and Jacquin; our evidence of its real structure is therefore imperfect, 

 but enough is recorded to show that it is a very anomalous form, if 

 it really belong to the Myoporacece. It is a large tree, 30 feet 

 high, has a trunk 2 feet in diameter, with a large head of thick 

 foliage ; its leaves are always alternate, somewhat serrated, marked 

 with transparent dots, a^i^, liave a^ acrimonious taste. Bontia occurs 



