Linncean Society. 219 



Treviranus, Meyen and Korthals. Doubts still exist as to their 

 precise function ; but it appears to him probable either that they are 

 the mouths by which the fluid is poured out into the pitcher, or that 

 they are connected with the function of respiration. 



He thinks with M. Morren that the pitcher originates from the 

 lamina of the leaf, the margins of which become united at an early 

 period ; while he regards the operculum as formed upon the plan of 

 the cucuUate sepal and petals oi Aconitum, and derived from the apex 

 of the leaf. He regards the pitchers of Sarracenia as formed upon 

 the same principle ; but compares those of Cephalotua to the labellum 

 of Cypripedium, the modified leaf being produced anteriorly into a 

 pouch, and the operculum being posterior, and not anterior, as in 

 Nepenthes. 



The cuticle of the upper surface of the expanded part of the pe- 

 tiole of Nepenthes distillatoria is described as destitute of stomata; 

 that of the under surface as being furnished with numerous oval, or 

 nearly orbicular stomata, composed of two semicircular cellules with 

 rectilinear faces. That of the outer surface of the pitcher is also 

 without stomata, but covered, especially in the young state, with 

 long subulate hairs, frequently dichotomous, or furnished with a spur- 

 like process at their base. The outer surface of the ojierculum is 

 sparingly furnished with stomata, and clothed with hairs which are 

 frequently branched and fasciculate ; the inner has no stomata, but 

 is furnished with clathrophores and clothed with hairs, which are 

 often fasciculate, but mostly simple. 



In Sarracenia purpurea the cuticle of the pitchers is described as 

 consisting of sinuously-lobed and somewhat steliiform cellules, with 

 numerous small, oval, closed stomata. The fibrous bundles are 

 stated to be composed entirely of long pleurenchyma, the paren- 

 chyma adjacent to which consists of beautiful spiral cellules. The 

 hairs of the inner surface of the operculum are simple, hollow, re- 

 flexed, subulate, and marked with numerous longitudinal parallel 

 lines or striae; they proceed from a somewhat elevated base. In the 

 pitchers of Cephalotus the stomata are large, oval and closed ; the 

 spiral vessels smaller than in Nepenthes, and containing only a single 

 fibre ; and the hairs which form the fringed border are simple, ob- 

 tuse and transparent. 



Read also " A Descriptive Catalogue of the Graminete and Ci/pe- 

 raceme contained in the Indian Herbarium of Dr. Royle." By C. G, 

 Nees von Esenbeck, M.D., F.M.L.S., President of the Imperial 

 Leopoldino- Caroline Academy Naturae Curiosorum. 



The following are the characters of the new genera described in 

 this paper. 



Trib. SACCHARIN EiE. 

 Leptathekum, Nees. 

 Spiculce in rachi ad articulos bavba cincta geminae, homogamse, heniio- 

 logamse, altera sessiH, altera pedicellata, utraque setigcra. Glumes duae, 

 herbaceo-membranaceae, acutie ; inferior dorso canaliculata, quadri- 

 nervis ; superior carinata trinervis. Flosculi univalves membranacei ; 

 inferior neuter, muticus ; superior linearis, canaliculatus, apice trans- 



