two new Families of' Plants. 1B5 



sphmrtca, exlus sa7igui?ieo-rubra, nitida, Semina pulpd sanguined, 

 grati acidi eduli. 



The real structure of the fruit of the pomegranate appears to 

 have been overlooked by all authors * I have consulted on the 

 subject, and even the distinguished Gaertner has fallen into er- 

 ror both in bis description and figure. It is in reality a fleshy 

 receptacle, formed by the tube of the calyx into a unilocular 

 berry, filled with a spongy placenta, which is hollowed out into a 

 number of irregular cells, in which the seeds are placed ; the 

 dissepiments being nothing more than thin portions of the pla^ 

 centa. If we could conceive the fruit of Rosa to be filled up 

 with an interrupted pulpy matter, it would be exactly of the 

 same structure as the pomegranate. The affinities of Granatem 

 are yet to be ascertained. In the structure of the embryo, it 

 agrees well with the true Malva^cecE, and with PomacecB in its 

 flowers ; but the total absence of stipules, together with the pre- 

 sence of some important characters, lead me to suspect that the 

 comparison is merely analogical, and that it has no real affinity 

 with either of these families. 



Account of a rare Fish (Scicena AquilaJJbund in the Shetland 

 Seasf. By P. Neill, Esq. F. R. S. E., F. L. S., & Sec. W. S., 

 (Communicated by the Author.) 



I^O long ago as the autumn of the year 1820, I received from 

 my friend Mr Robert Strong of Leith, a specimen of a large and 

 very uncommon fish, belonging to the Spinous class, and of the 

 order Thoracici, which had been sent to him from Shetland, 

 along with a cargo of the dried fish of that country. The spe- 

 cimen had been split and cured much in the way practised by 

 the Shetland fishers on the cod, ling and tusk, which they send 

 to market. The head, however, remained attached to the body, 

 and was pretty entire. All the fins likewise remained, but were 



* I must except, however, the learned Dr F. Nees von Esenbeck, whose 

 views respecting the structure of the fruit of Punica appear to coincide en- 

 tirely with mine. — Vide Nova Acta Acad. Ccbs. Nat. Cur. torn. 11. p. 110, et seq. 



t Read before the Wernerian Natural History Society, g7th May 1&26. 



