13 



at all in the seeds of Iris, to which you call my attention, as 

 differing- from each other in the same way. The difference, 

 there^ is no more than occurs between Hippeastrum reticula- 

 tum and vittatum. Iris seeds have two separable coats. In 

 some there is a vacuum or cavity between them ; in foetida 

 that cavity is filled with pulp, and in others it is more or less 

 filled, but the inner coated kernel is alike in all ; and the 

 difference is merely the absorption of the intermediate pulp. 

 The outer coat of the seed of Iris foetida is easy separable 

 from the pulp." 



CLESTINES; 



Professor Morren has given this name to those well-known 

 large cells of cellular tissue in which raphides, or acicular 

 crystals, are deposited in plants. He finds that in Musa pa- 

 radisiaca the destine is produced among oval tissue of the 

 divisions of the air cells in the leaves of that plant, and that 

 for a long time after the appearance of crystals in the inside, 

 it preserves its oval figure. So long as it remains attached 

 by a single point to the cells of this partition it retains that 

 form, but by degrees the surrounding tissue alters into acti- 

 nenchyma, or starry tissue, and then its adhesion to the cells 

 from which it receives its food takes place at several different 

 points ; whereupon in augmenting in size and gaining a much 

 greater capacity than the surrounding actinenchyma, it at- 

 taches itself to the rays of the latter by legs or peculiar exten- 

 sions, which may amount to the number 8 or 10. But if it 

 is formed at the borders of the prismatical tissue of the parti- 

 tions, it acquires the form of a cylinder with two beaks. He re- 

 gards destines as analogous to the hiforines observed by Turpin 

 in a few Araceous plants, but differing in not possessing the 

 apertures required for the ejaculation of their contents under 

 the influence of endosmosis : Observations sur rAnatomie des 

 Musa, in the Bulletin, de VAc. R. de Bruxelles,VI. no. 3. 



Recensio specierum generis Pteridis, auctore Jac. G.Agardh, Lundce, 1839, 8vo. 



In a pamphlet of 86 pages Dr. James Agardh has given 

 an arrangement, with their specific characters, synonyms, 

 and history, of the great and difficult genus P^em, the species 

 of which, after eliminating such as are now referred to other 

 genera, amount in number to 94, the distinctions of which 



