matic rays, are found in one tank, and no two tanks have exactly the 

 same forms. — (3.) Dr. Hooker considers that Brown's theory of 

 carpellary sutural placentation is the correct one, and that axile and 

 free placentation may be reduced to it. Dr. Hooker mentions a case 

 of Stachys with a four-lobed, one-celled ovary formed by two carpels 

 placed back and front, and bearing half-way up a pair of parietal 

 Sutural ovules ; also a Primrose with parietal ovules. The Yew 

 which Schleiden describes as having an ovule terminating the axis, 

 has been shown to have often two ovules, and when one, it is always 

 oblique and lateral. 



7. " On Stellaria umbrosa, Opitz," by Mr. G. Lawson. Stellaria 

 umbrosa, hitherto only known as a Sussex plant, had been observed 

 by Mr. Lawson on the shore near Rossyth Castle, in Fifeshire. He 

 had not, however, much faith in its claims to specific distinction, 

 and regarded it in the hght of a book species, made out of forms of 

 S. media ; the Scotch S. umbrosa appeared to form even a greater 

 departure from the typical S. media than the Sussex one. No plant 

 appeared to be more capable of adapting itself to all conditions of 

 soil, climate, and situation, than Stellaria media, and to this circum- 

 stance was due the numerous forms of the plant known to botanists ; 

 the extremes of these forms were remarkably distinct from each other ; 

 but when studied in detail, all were found to be intimately linked 

 together. 



9rij III JlBq LINN^AN SOCIETY. 



^^^^anuWfjr 7th, 1854.— Robert Brown, Esq., V.P., in the Chair. 



'- Read Extracts from a Letter, addressed by Dr. Edward Vogel to 

 Berthold Seemann, Esq., Ph.D., F.L.S. 



Dr. Vogel, as is well known, is attached to the expedition dis- 

 patched by Her Majesty's government for the exploration of Central 

 Africa. He quitted London on the 19th of February 1853, reached 

 Tripoli in the beginning of March ; and after a stay of several 

 months, caused partly by the delays of his travelling companion, the 

 brother of the Sheikh of Bornou, and partly by his own preparations, 

 he started southwards towards the end of June, and after passing 

 Benoulid and Soknu, reached Mourzouk on the 5th of August. On 

 the 15th of October he was to leave that place for Lake Tsad ; but 

 previously he addressed, along with his oificial dispatches, various 

 letters to his friends in Europe, treating of diiferent branches of 

 science ; and among these one to Dr. Seemann, dated "Mourzouk, 

 October 8th, 1853," giving some account of the botanical features 

 of the region between Tripoli and Mourzouk, from which the fol- 

 lowing extracts are taken : — 



"There will shortly arrive at the Foreign Office in London 

 a box containing amongst other things a collection of dried plants 

 addressed to Mr. Robert Brown. The following will serve as 

 a commentary on that collection ; and you will greatly oblige 

 me by communicating it to that savant, and making known those 

 parts which you consider lit for publication. The plants were 



