62 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



of the leaf is alluded to in a footnote; and this hypothesis 

 he considers as " having originated with Linnaeus * in his 

 ' Prolepsis Plantarum,' though he had not clearly stated it, 

 and had also connected it with other speculations which have 

 since been generally abandoned." The theory of the mar- 

 ginal production of pollen is advanced, and compared with tl)at 

 of ovules on the margins of the carpellary leaf. Further proof of 

 the structure of the pistillum follows. In the same note occurs 

 the following pregnant observation, that " ConiferoB and Cifcadece 

 will perhaps be found to differ from all other phanerogamous 

 plants in the more simple structure, both of their ovaria and 

 anther<e." In the second paper, the composition of the ovarium, 

 placeutation, and the development of the ovule in BafflesiacecB 

 are treated of at length, and a very elaborate discussion of the 

 vascular system in this and other Orders occurs in a footnote. 



In the year 1825 was read before this Society what is one of 

 the most noteworthy of all his Memoirs, that entitled " Characters 

 and description of Kingia, a new genus of plants found on the 

 S.W. coast of New Holland, with observations on the structure 

 of its unimpregnated ovulum, and on the female flower of Cy- 

 cadeoB and Conifer ce.''^ Commencing with a detailed description 

 of Kingia, the author resumes the subject of the ovule of plants, 

 of which he traces the history, from the observations of Grew, 

 who not only described the ovular coats, but detected the fora- 

 men in the seeds of Leguminosae and defined its position as oppo- 

 site to the radicle of the embryo, to those of Link in 1824. The 

 functions of its several parts are then described, and its develop- 

 ment into the seed in many genera. In the course of this in- 

 vestigation he corrects many errors of his predecessors and sup- 

 plies hiati in their descriptions. Tliis is followed by similar 

 treatment of the anther and ovule in Couifercs, CgcadecB, and Gne- 

 taceof. These observations are supplemented by a paper read 

 before the meeting of the British Association at Ecliuburgh 

 nearly ten years afterwards, in which he describes the corpuscles, 

 the development of the susi)ensor, and the retarded action of tne 

 pollen after it reaches the ovule in some plants of these Orders. 



The Appendix to the Ti-avels of Major Deuham and Capt. Clap- 

 perton contains an account of the plants collected by Dr. Oudney, 

 and was published iu 1826. It is chiefly systematic, but contains 

 important disquisitions, relative to some new genera of Crueifercd, 

 on the hypogynous glands, pistils, placeutation, and septum of 

 the fruit. It further ex])lains the structure of the petals in 

 Reseda, shows the affinities of LeguminoscB with Rosacece and 

 Polygalece, and describes the number and position of pistilla iu 



* It originated with Wolff, was faultily enunciated by Linnaeus, and correctly 

 by Goethe. It. is impossible to say whether or not the two latter authors 

 were or were not acquainted with tlicir predecessor's works. They were learned 

 men, and it is inconceivable that Goethe should not have seen Limiaeus's ' Pro- 

 lepsis. 



