66 PROCEEDINGS OK TlIK 



liis li;i\ iiif,' iini)re{,'uated all the flowers ou a spike of a Bonatca by 

 vwv pollen-ma Bti, a prc-Darwinian experiment; and that impreg- 

 nation in Ophriin is frequently accomplished without the aid of 

 insects. It is singular that this last remark should have seduced 

 the autlior of this, perhaps the most cautious of all his works, 

 into the region of speculation ; for he goes on to say that it may 

 be conjectured that the remarkable forms of the flower iu tliis 

 r'eiius are intended to deter, not to attract insects, and that the 

 insect-forms of Orchideous flowers resemble those of the insects 

 belonging to th(> native country of the plants. 



It remains to indicate Brown's researches in fossil botany. 

 These, witli one I'xception, hardly extended beyond tlie study of 

 the calcified and silicified stems, especially of tree-ferns, in which 

 he took a deep interest, and upon which he communicated to liis 

 friends mucli curious and most valuable information, but pub- 

 lished nothing. In the works of Buckland, Lyell, and Murchison, 

 &c., will be found bis conclusions regarding certain Cycadeous, 

 Coniferous, and other fruits, to which his attention had been 

 drawn. As a characteristic example of his reticence, I may cite a 

 characteristic response of his to a request that he would give an 

 account of a collection of vegetable remains foimd. below the Chalk. 

 Of these he says : — " They belong to two nearly related families, 

 Coiiifcrcc and Cycuclece, which liave been regarded as forming 

 a di*tinct class, characterized by greater simplicity of the parts 

 of fructification, but also by some peculiarities of the internal 

 structure, and thence have been considered as intermediate be- 

 tween Phanerogams and Cryptogams and Acotyledonous plants." 

 There is something almost grotesque in such a delphic utter- 

 ance from the great expositor of gymnospermous structure, aud 

 it further ai)pears to me that it Avould be difficult to give to an 

 eager inquirer an answer wrapped in a wetter blanket*. 



With like caution and better reason, he refrained from giving 

 an opinion on fossil foliage specimens. His comprehensive know- 

 ledge of the protean forms of the leaves of living plants, aud of the 

 frequent recurrence of identical forms in the most distant natural 

 families, and in the most remote countries, forbad his authorita- 

 tively assenting to the identification of the leaves of fossil with 

 those of existing plants. That such a fossil leaf or fruit was 

 " more or less like" such auotlier existing one, was usually the 

 utmost that could be extorted from him ; and he published 

 nothing on the subject. The solitary printed memoir ou a fossil 

 plant, alluded to above, was also iiis last botanical one of any 

 moment. It is that on Trijjlosporites, read before this Society 



* I am indebted for auotlier cliaracteristic example of Brown's caution to 

 I'rof. Huxley. Wlicu showing bim. the collection of i'ossil plants in the 

 Jerniyn Street Jluseuni, Prof. Huxley jilaced in his hands a specimen which 

 had been referred, and apparently with good reason, to Conifvra, and asked for 

 liis coniirniation of the identification ; I can imagine the twinkle of liis eye as 

 he gave for an answer, "It is conical." 



