XXXIV PEOCEEDINGS OF THE 



protonema of a moss. Normally the prothallus of a fern is en- 

 tirely destitute of vascular tissue of any kind. 



Professor Thiselton Dyer described tte structure of the flowers 

 of Pringlea and Lyallia, which had recently been sent to this 

 country for the first time by Mr. Moseley, and which had been 

 dissected by Professor Oliver and subsequently by himself. 



Pringlea possesses no petals whatever. The stamens are normal, 

 with flattened filaments gradually narrowed upwards. Glandulae 

 are altogether absent. The stigma is flattened and hairy. 



Lyallia has the flowers solitary in the axils of the overlapping 

 leaves. The pedicel is furnished with two subopposite lateral bracts. 

 The perianth consists of four free membranous leaflets arranged 

 in two decussating pairs. The stamens are variable ; but com- 

 monly there is one anterior and two posterior, with minute gland- 

 like swellings of the torus between their insertion. The bifurca- 

 tion of the stigma is apparently oblique to the median line of the 

 flower. The ovary is one-celled, with about three erect basal 

 ovules. Pirst placed in Portulacese, and subsequently amongst 

 the Polycarpese in Caryophyllacese, its final place would probably 

 be found to be in Alsinese near Colobanthus. 



Dr. Hooker then stated that whereas in a former communica- 

 tion he had pointed out that two of the peculiar plants of Tristan 

 d'Acunha reappeared in nearly the same latitude in Amsterdam 

 Island, he had now to call attention to the no less remarkable 

 latitudinal extension, more to the south, of that very remarkable 

 plant Pringlea. Mr. Moseley had had the good fortune to get 

 this on Marion Island more to the west, and on Heard Island 

 more to the east of any known station for it. They had specie 

 cimens in the Kew Herbarium from the Crozets. He thought 

 that these facts were very important additions to the geogra- 

 phical botany of the great southern oceanic region. He could 

 not agree with Mr. Bennett's suggestion that the Tristan 

 d'Acunha plant might have been introduced by human agency into 

 Amsterdam Island. Several peculiarities in the structure of 

 Pringlea, the absence of petals and of the usual glands between 

 the bases of the stamens, the exserted anthers, and the papiUge of 

 the stigma extended into a tuft of hairs, appear to point to this 

 plant (a native of a country where there are no winged insects) 



