Botanical Notices from Spain. 268 



his inspection^ who wrote me in reply that he could see the di- 

 vision into four pretty distinctly. 



I have since observed the same peculiarity in the spores of 

 Tyndaridea insignis, Hass., and Staurocarpus gracilis, Hass., and, 

 as Mr. Berkeley remarks to me, it may prove more general than 

 has hitherto been supposed. The separation of the contents of 

 the sporangium into four portions does not take place in our three 

 species until the fruit is nearly mature, and this soon afterwards 

 becomes too opake for the character to be seen, so that it can be 

 observed only in a particular state of the plant. The sporangium 

 in all the species I have mentioned is more or less compressed 

 vertically. 



Mesocarpus scalaris may occasionally be observed with some of 

 its cells considerably inflated ; and each of these enlarged cells is 

 found to contain a globose echinulate body very much resembling 

 the sporangium of some of the Desmidiea, and respecting the 

 character of which it is difficult to determine : this body may first 

 be seen as a very small spherical cell, apparently quite smooth, 

 and containing an oily-looking fluid ; it subsequently grows much 

 larger and becomes furnished with several long curved spines : 

 its texture seems to be corneous. It does not appear to be de- 

 veloped at the expense of the endochrome of the cell which con- 

 tains it, but in some instances I have thought the quantity of 

 endochrome rather larger than usual in the inflated cells. Can 

 this curious body be an abnormal growth of the nucleus, or is it 

 an internal parasite ? Some of the cells of a Tyndaridea received 

 from Mr. Ralfs, have within them a fusiform transversely ribbed 

 body, which is probably of a similar character to the spherical 

 ones found in the Mesocarpus, 



I am. Gentlemen, your very obedient servant, 



G. H. K. Thwaites. 



XXXVI. — Botanical Notices from Spain, 



By MORITZ WiLLKOMM*. 



[Continued from p. 196.] 



No. XI. Granada, July 5, 1845. 



Before my departure from Malaga I visited, in the beginning of last 

 month, the southern portion of the Sierra de Mijas, lying near the 

 village of Chuniana. Along the bank of the Guadalhorce occurred 

 Scaly mus maculatus, L., Achillea Ageratum, L., and various Carices in 

 flower, and on boulders and sand above Chuniana and on the slopes 

 of the mountain -chain blossomed Ruta montana, L., a small form of 



* Translated from the Botanische Zeitung, Nov. 21, 1845. 



