90 Linnean Society. [Jan. 19, 



Read, " A Description of a new genus of Linece." By Charles 

 Cardale Babington, Esq., M.A., F.L.S. 



This genus, which Mr. Babington regards as assisting to establish 

 more fully the relationship of LinetE to Malvacece, is stated to differ 

 from the usual structure of Line^ by its imbricated and not contorted 

 petals, which are also not unguiculate, although slightly attenuated 

 below, and by the remarkably thick coats of its one-seeded, perfectly 

 closed carpels. Its essential character is given as follows : 



CLIOCOCCA. 



Sepala 5, integra. Petala 5, in sestivatione imbricata. Stamina 5. Cap- 

 sula lO-locularis; loculis clausis indehiscentibus. 



The plant on which the genus is founded was raised in the Cam- 

 bridge Botanic Garden from seeds gathered in the interior of New 

 South Wales by Mr. Melluish, and has flowered there during three 

 successive years. 



Read also, " Extracts of Letters from Wm. Griffith, Esq., F.L.S., 

 to R. H. Solly, Esq., F.L.S." 



In the first of these letters, dated from Olipore, April 8th, 1840, 

 Mr. Griffith states that he had recently examined two species of 

 Ephedra, and had no doubt that the ovulum is, as described by 

 Mr. Brown, naked. The first of these species has a very siliceous 

 stem,* without stomata, unless certain discs blocked up with some 

 hard matter (silex }) are to be so considered ; which he believes to 

 be the correct view, inasmuch as the other species, which has no 

 siliceous deposit, has stomata of the ordinary structure arranged in 

 a similar manner. 



He had also examined the ovaria of some Orchideous plants, in 

 which he found, in conformity with Mr. Brown's observations, that 

 the cords sent down to the placentae and subdividing into branches, 

 one of which passes on each side of each placenta, do not exist before 

 impregnation. He adds, that the size of the cords is certainly in 

 proportion to the degree of solution of the pollinia by the stigmatic 

 action. 



In another letter, dated April 23rd, Mr. Griffith describes the 

 ovule of the outer cell of Callipeltis } (that of the inner being always 

 abortive) as deriving its membranous covering from the inner layer 

 of the ovarium. The ovulum itself he states to be reduced to its 

 nucleus, but otherwise exactly to resemble those ovula which have 

 their foramen near the hilura. The same structure, he adds, exists in 

 the two species of Galium found in the neighbourhood ; the seed 



