Linnaan Society. 307 



LINNJEAN SOCIETY. 



February 1 9, 1 833. — A paper was read, entitled, " Observations on 

 anew Genus of the Order Musci." By William Valentine, Esq. F.L.S. 



This genus is founded on the P/iascum Stoloniferum of Dickson j 

 and the principal characters are, its lateral fructification, and the pre- 

 sence of Conferva-like shoots, which the author regards as real stems. 

 These shoots are developed long before the fructification makes its 

 appearance. After a time, the perichsetia sprout forth from the sides 

 of the stems and branches, in the form of buds, which, towards ma- 

 turity, send down radicular fibres (like the perichsetia of Dicrarmm 

 adiantoides, and many of the creeping Hypna), which penetrate the soil 

 to a great depth for so minute a plant. From these perichsetia, young 

 branches are sent forth, and then the parent stem is hardly discernible, 

 or entirely decays. The structure of the stem and branches, which 

 consist Of a single series of elongated cells, is peculiar, and totally 

 unlike that of all other Mosses. 



The above observations were made on the P. Stoloniferum only ; 

 but from the presence of Conferva-like shoots, and the similarity in 

 the texture of the leaves, the author thinks they will be equally ap- 

 plicable to the P. serratum, cohcerens, and crassinervium, which will 

 consequently be referrible to the same genus, which he has named 

 Cladoma, with the following characters : — Theca integra, deopercu- 

 lata. Fructus lateralis. 



March 5. — Part of a paper on the Myrsinece, by M. Alphonse De- 

 Candolle, was read. 



March 19. — An extract was read from a letter, addressed to R. H. 

 Solly, Esq. F.R.S. and L.S., by Mr. William Griffith, Assist ant-Surgeon 

 in the Honourable East India Company's Service, containing some 

 curious remarks on the change of insertion in the stamina of Mir a bilis. 

 Some time before the expansion of the flower, the stamina are found 

 to be hypogynous ; but as the contraction of the tube of the perian- 

 thium increases, the filaments are gradually separated, as if by liga- 

 ture, at the strangulated part just above the ovarium, leaving their 

 lower ends in the form of five setigerous glands ; their upper portion 

 becoming united to the tube of the perianthium for a considerable 

 way above the contraction, and thence deriving their nourishment. 

 Mr. Griffith could not find any vascular connexion between the fila- 

 ments and the perianthium : he thinks the adhesion takes place by 

 means of loose cellular tissue. Mr. Griffith remarks, that the stem 

 in this plant deviates from the dicotyledonous structure, the centre 

 being composed of cellular tissue, with bundles of woody fibre inter- 

 spersed, thus approaching the Monocotyledonece. 



A notice was read, extracted from a letter from Capt. King, R.N., 

 stating that Mr. J. MacArthur, of Paramatta, had a specimen of Or- 

 nithorhynchus, from the mammae of which he had squeezed a large 

 quantity of milk. There were no nipples, but the milk oozed out 

 through pores. This direct confirmation of the discovery of Professor 

 Meckel appears to have been obtained in New South Wales, about 

 the same time that Mr. Owen was demonstrating the same fact (as 



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