Gelehrte Gesellschaften. 31 



reproduction, which becomes lertilized and produces zoospores , or he con- 

 founded this with fertile hair-organs. As regards the systematic position of 

 the algae, a comparison with Coleochaete suggests that there is very little 

 in common, beyond mode of growth , of the disk-like thallus and the pro- 

 duction of zoospores certain cells. The genus Chroolepus, moreever, presents 

 teatures which agree in several important points, viz. , orange-red oily cell- 

 contents, habitat, production of zoospores in ovoid cells developed terminally 

 and laterally. The structure of the thallus and relative positions of the main 

 masses of fungal and algal portions agree with what occurs in heteromerous 

 crustaceous lichens, as Graphidea ; but the perithecia indicate an angiocarpous 

 alliance , bringing this form nearer such families as Pertusaria and Ver- 

 rucaria, to the latter of which it may^ ultimately be referred. 



February 15. — Sir John L üb bock, Bart., F. R. Ö., President, in the 

 chau-. — Mr. J. G. Baker read the third part of his ^Contributions to 

 the Flora of Madagascar\ This includes descriptions of the new In- 

 completae and Monocotyledons contained in the coUections lateley received 

 from the Rev. R. Baron and Dr. G. W. Parker. The only new genus is a 

 Balanophora much resembling in habit a Compound Sphaeria, which Sir J. 

 D. H k e r proposes to call Cephalophyton , but of which the material ia 

 still incomplete. A large number of the new species belong to widely spread 

 tropical genera, such as Ficus, Loranthus, Croton, Acalypha, and Peperomia. 

 In Lauraceae , an order hitherto feebly represented in the Island , there are 

 several novelties. Types characteristic of the Cape and mountaiu regions of 

 Central Africa are represented by Faurea, Peddiea, Uais, Kniphofia, and 

 Dipcadi, one species each, and by three Aristeas and four Aloes. The Dip- 

 cadi is curious because, as in an Angolan species gathered by Welwitsch, 

 the tails of the three upper segments grow longer and longer in the upper 

 flowers of the raceme , tili at the top the lamina is entirely absorbed. Of 

 endemic types there are three new Obetias and two Tambourissas. The 

 Bamboo of the forests of Imerina, now received from Dr. Parker for the 

 first tinie in flower, proves to be the same species that is common in the 

 inferior of Bourbon. Of novelties nearly allied to north temperate types there 

 are three species of Bromus, one of Stipa, and two Carices from the Ankaratra 

 mountains, one near to divisa and the other to ampullacea. A plant not in 

 flower, with curious Compound phyllocladia, is probably an Exocarpus allied 

 to the Norfolk Island E. phyllanthoides. There is a third species of the new 

 Alismaceous genus Wiesneria, hitherto known in Iiidia and Central Africa; 

 and a new species of Centratherum, a genus of grasses hitherto confined to 

 India and China. Mr. C. B. Clarke has contributed a complete Synopsis, 

 with Synonyms, of the species of Cyperus known in Madagascar and the 

 neighbouring Islands. — Mr. Gr. Murray read a paper „On the outer 

 Peridium ofBroomeia congregata." This gasteromycetous fungus, 

 which is nearly related to Geaster, consists of a mass of individuals closely 

 seated together on a corky stroma. These individuals have been found up 

 tili now with only one peridium, and the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, who first 

 described the plant in 1844, treated the stroma as the homologue of an outer 

 peridium. Mr. M u r r a y has found on some specimens brought from Dam- 

 mara-land by Mr. T. C. E e n a true outer peridium common to all the 

 individuals. From an examination of it he is able to throw light on the 

 mode of development of this fungus. — Mr. W. B. Hemsley read a com- 

 munication, „On the synonymy of Didymoplexis, and on the 

 elongation of the pedicel in D. pallens." The latter saprophytic 

 Orchid is widely scattered in Tropical Asia, though apparently nowhere very 

 common. At the time of flowering the pedicels are shorter than the flowers, 

 which are less than half an inch long; but afterwards they elongate, sometimes 

 as much as a foot. The object seems to be to carry the ripening truit clear 

 of the wet decaying vegetable matter in which the plant grows. 



