1841.] lAnnean Society. 91 



having no proper covering except the albumen and embryonary sac, 

 its proper coat adhering intimately with the free inner layer of the 

 ovary, and this again adhering slightly with the calycine layer of that 

 organ. 



In another letter, dated from Cabul, July 23rd, 1840, Mr. Griffith 

 alludes to the mode of attachment of Cuscuta and Orobanche. Cuscuta, 

 he says, differs in this respect but little from Loranthus : the suckers 

 stop at the first completely-formed wood, and never penetrate 

 further, and both the cortical and ligneous systems pass into the 

 stock. In Orobanche, which, however, he has only slightly examined, 

 the attachment seems to him to be made only by a bundle of ducts 

 derived from the outer part of the central system, which spread out 

 into a disc over the surface of the first completely-formed wood they 

 meet. He states the Cuscuta examined to be a gigantic species in 

 extent, infesting willows, poplars, a species of Eleeagnus and the 

 Alhagi Maurorum. It also preys, he says, extensively on itself; and 

 one of its intricate masses, half covering a willow-tree twenty or 

 thirty feet high, presents a remarkable spectacle. 



February 2. 



Mr. Forster, V.P., in the Chair. 



Addresses of Congratulation to Her Majesty and to His Royal 

 Highness Prince Albert, on Her Majesty's safe delivery of a Princess, 

 were read and agreed to. 



Read a paper " On a peculiar kind of Organs existing in the 

 Pitcher of Nepenthes distillatoria." By Prof. Don, Libr. L.S. 



These organs, named by Prof. Don ' clathrophores,' occupy the 

 lower half of the inside of the pitcher, and have been described by 

 Treviranus, Meyen and Korthals. Doubts stUl exist as to their 

 precise function ; but it appears to him probable either that they are 

 the mouths by which the fluid is poured out into the pitcher, or that 

 they are connected with the function of respiration. 



He thinks with M. Morren that the pitcher originates from the 

 lamina of the leaf, the margins of which become united at an early 

 period ; while he regards the operculum as formed upon the plan of 

 the cucuUate sepal and petals of Aconitum, and derived from the apex 



