Instances of Symphysis in Plants. 83 



blance to the crustacean Caligi cannot be overlooked, and 

 affords additional proof of the soundness of M. Edwards's 

 views in approximating these families, and placing them in 

 one order. It differs from the Lernae « [VIII. 565.'] in the 

 bilateral symmetry of the body, for this part is divided into 

 two halves, exactly alike, by a clear tendinous structure ; and 

 the sides are mottled with the convolutions of an intestinal 

 tube, which, however, we have not attempted to exhibit in 

 the figure. -—Berwick upon Tweed. {Received Dec. 23. 1835.] 



Art. V. An Instance, perhaps Two Instances, of Symphysis in 

 Plants described. By B. D. Walsh, Esq. 



In that part of the Black Dog Wood which adjoins Chap- 

 manslade, a* village about four miles from Frome, there grows 

 a remarkable beech tree (jPagus sylvatica), of parts of which I 

 transmit sketches. (Jig. 17.) At a distance of several feet from 

 the ground, there shoots out from the trunk a small limb 

 (a b) 9 which, after rising 13 in., enters again into the trunk, 

 without any appearance of a scar or seam in any part of it. 

 The larger figure (a) represents the lower part of the tree, 

 in a side view of the limb. The next larger figure (b) repre- 

 sents a front view of the limb, as connected with the contigu- 

 ous part of the trunk. At c, and for some inches above and 

 below, the bark of this small limb is perfectly smooth all the 

 way round, and the only vestige of a juncture having taken 

 place at a is a slight wrinkling and chipping of the parent 

 stem, which makes its appearance here and there in an irre- 

 gular semicircle above a. Supposing a horizontal section to 

 be made at c (as in Jig. c), there is a longitudinal groove 

 both at e and d ; the smaller branch being very much flattened, 

 as shown in the figure, throughout the whole of its course. 

 Fig. n represents a section at a. 



Has this phenomenon been caused by the pressure of 

 another branch, as appears to be indicated by the flatness of 

 a b? and if so, what branch could have produced that 

 effect ? The tree has been a good deal lopped, but none of 

 the stumps appear to have thrown out a limb in that direction. 

 Or must we regard it as a hisus natures ? which, after all, means 

 nothing more than that we know nothing at all about the 

 matter. 



While on this subject, I may as well mention another tree 

 remarkable for the same peculiarity, growing between Spring 

 Gardens and Selwood Cottage, near Frome. This is an old 



