Erg 
II. On the Development of the Qbule in Orchis Morio, Linn. 
By ARTHUR HENFREY, Esq., FLS. gir: 
Read April 3, 1849. 
IN the spring and summer of last year I made many observations on the young ovules 
of various plants, with the view of testing the various doctrines on this subject, which 
had acquired new interest from the recent researches of Amici, Mohl and others. Only 
one series of my investigations attained anything like completeness; but in Orchis Morio 
I believe that I have seen and can confirm all that the above-mentioned observers have 
described; and I now present my results to the Linnean Society, partly because I believe 
that in the present state of the question all evidence derived from careful observation is of 
some value, and partly because I*have succeeded in obtaining a more complete series of 
figures illustrating the successive conditions of the ovule than has yet been published; . 
Mohl, who gives the most complete àecount of the development in Orchis Morio, having 
given no drawings. The following account is drawn up from my notes made during the 
observations, principally in the month of May 1848. 
. May 3rd. In the ovaries of flowers which had just opened, and were without signs of 
pollen upon the stigmatic surface, the ovules, about 545th of an inch long, were just 
curving over toward the anatropous position; in some the axis of the nucleus formed 
nearly a right angle with the funiculus (Tas. II. figs. 4 & 5). The nucleus projected 
beyond the cells, forming the single coat of the ovule, and consisted of a large central cell 
(the embryo-sac), enclosed by a layer of very delicate cells of small size, constituting a 
proper coat of the nucleus. | 
May 9th. The ovules of fully expanded flowers were not much altered, except in the 
much clearer definition of the walls of the cells. The embryo-sac was filled with a clear, 
colourless fluid, in which floated minute black atoms, scarcely large enough to deserve 
the name of granules. In some flowers the stigmas were smeared with pollen, but often 
from the anthers of other flowers, their own being still closed. These pollen masses sent 
down numerous tubes, which differed much from any of the cells of the tissue in which 
they were engaged. The pollen-tubes were always about th of an inch in diameter, 
at most one-fourth of the size of the smallest of the surrounding cells, which were also 
short and often irregular in form, while the pollen-tubes always appeared as long, slender 
filaments. / | 
May 13th. The flowers withered and the stigmas covered with pollen. A dense bundle 
of tubes lay in the midst of the lax tissue of the canal leading to the cavity of the ovary. 
The ovules were considerably advanced, some being quite anatropous (fig. 6), others three- 
fourths reversed; those quite anatropous were about 735th of an inch in length. The two 
coats of the ovule (tegmen and testa) were now distinctly evident; the length of the testa - 
