29] 
XXIII Remarks on Gnetura. By the late WILLIAM bs ELS., Madras. 
. Medical Service. Communicated by A. HENFREY, Esq., F.R.S., F.L.S., Professor of 
_ Botany, King’s College." iy = | è 
Read April 21st, 1859. 
: PREFATORY Nore BY Pror. HENFREY. | 
THE following paper is the original from which were derived the particulars communi- 
cated by Dr. Lindley, in the article Gnetacee, in his * Vegetable Kingdom ;’ and it is now 
brought forward under the following circumstances. 
My curiosity was excited by Mr. Griffith’s account, quoted by Dr. Lindley, of the exist- 
ence of a long convoluted suspensor in the ovule of Gnetum. It appeared to me that this 
indicated an additional affinity between the Guetaceæ and the Conifere and Cycadaceæ, 
and that this would be still more striking if it were accompanied by the phenomena of 
polyembryony, such as are met with in the undoubted Gymnosperms. On examination of 
some specimens, I found that the lower end of the long convolutéd suspensor does divide 
into à number of distinct processes, as in Conifers, and that the embryo is developed at 
the end of one of these. I now became anxious to examine some flowers in an early stage 
of development with a view to ascertain if Gnetum produced corpuscula ; which I thought 
might have been overlooked by Mr. Griffith, his Memoir having been written before the 
publication of Mr. Brown's celebrated Memoir on the Plurality of Embryos in the 
Conifere. rd MEET Fr SER us 
Through the kindness of Dr. Hooker, I obtained from the Kew Museum a supply of 
specimens of Gnetum in various stages of growth. From the same friend I learnt that 
the original Memoir of Mr. Griffith was in the hands of the Secretary of the Society, v +: 
with the consent of Dr. Lindley, Mr. Bennett placed the paper in my hands. The study 
of this paper, under the light of my own observations, has led me to attach great im- 
portance to it, and I have recommended its publication before communicating the results 
_ of my investigations, on account of the Aa 
| of the facts important in the history of developmen genus, and rendered it un 
cessary for ae do more than sp nett his observations in a few points, rx enter- 
‘ing upon the general conclusions I have drawn from his and my own studies. | 
I hope shortly to offer a paper on this subject for 
S La i; s S € j * 8 rste- 
. favourably upon the opinion expressed by Prof. J. der ec syke Is Loren 
matis Plantarum,' that the Gnetacee are related even more el | y o gata 
than to the Coniferæ. Å em M te á 
London, January 2, 1800. SET | og 
ving forestalled me in the greater part 
of this genus, and rendered it unne- 
the consideration of the Linnean 
+— Society, and shall merely say at present, that my investigations lead me to look very . 
de 
