168 Prof. Don’s Descriptions of two new Genera of the 
that a branch of the one might readily be mistaken for that of the other. The 
leaves are evergreen, subulate, laterally compressed, and in other respects they 
closely resemble those of that plant. The structure of the reproductive organs is 
even more remarkable than in any other of the Cupressineæ. The male catkins, 
which in the other genera of that group are terminal and solitary, are here 
numerous, as in the normal tribe of Pinus, and crowded in a spike-like man- 
ner at the extremity of the branches. ‘They are short, and the antheriferous 
scales are crowded, sessile, and closely imbricated, as in Araucaria excelsa and 
Cunninghamii. The thecæ, 5 in number, are unilocular, very short, combined 
together in a single series, concealed at the base of the scales, and open in- 
wardly towards the axis by a large rounded aperture. The female spikes are 
solitary and borne on the same tree, and most frequently on the same branch, 
in which case they occur on the inferior branchlets. They are globular, 
squarrose. and about the size of a walnut. "The most remarkable peculiarity 
of the genus, however, is that the composition of the male inflorescence seems 
to be reproduced in the female, the pericarpium apparently consisting of a 
verticil of leaves combined together, and concrete with the bracte, which is 
here much developed; the points of the pericarpial leaves, together with the 
upper portion of the bracte, are free, and crown the mature fruit in the form 
of subulate recurved teeth. The ovula vary from 4 to 5, and appear to bear 
some relation to the divisions of the pericarpium by which they are concealed. 
The more complex structure of this genus appears to militate against the view 
taken by Dr. Schleiden of the female flower of Abietineæ in his interesting 
memoir on the vegetable ovulum, of which a translation is given in that valu- 
able periodical, the “ Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science," for 
February and March last. According to him, the ovula in all cases originate 
from the axis, of which the placenta is a modified portion ; and he regards the 
scale, or what I have described as an expanded pericarpium, in 4bietineæ, as, 
in reality, the placenta, and what has hitherto been regarded as the bracte as 
the true pericarpial leaf. "This opinion he founds upon an examination of a 
monstrous spike of Abies alba, which upon the upper half bore female, and 
upon the lower half male, flowers, and he refers to an unpublished work of his 
for further details. With the very brief notice given in the memoir above- 
mentioned, and in the absence of the proofs which are to be adduced by 
