216 Linnean Society. [June 18, 



enumerates various plants from which solid oils have heen procured 

 in small quantities, and the list of which might probably be enor- 

 mously increased. 



Read also the conclusion of Mr. Griffith's memoir " On the Root- 

 Parasites referred by authors to Rhizanthece, and their Allies." 



This extensive memoir, or series of memoirs, commences with 

 " An Attempt to analyse Rhizanthea," as established by Prof. End- 

 licher and by Prof. Lindley, from which the author deduces the in- 

 ference, " that in the construction of the group called Rhizanthece, a 

 remarkable diversity of characters has been sacrificed to an appear- 

 ance resulting from parasitism on roots, and to an assumed absence 

 of any ordinary form of vegetable embryo." 



In arriving at this conclusion, his line of argument is summed up 

 as having especial reference to the three following points : "In the 

 first place," he says, " I have endeavoured to extend the objections 

 urged by Mr. Robert Brown, founded on the presence of a vascular 

 system, and the absence of any abstract peculiarity in the embryos 

 of these plants. I have also attempted to show that these plants are 

 not similar in their parasitism, and that even in those which I have 

 examined, there would appear to be two remarkably different types 

 of development of the embryo. Secondly, I have alluded to the op- 

 position presented, as it seems to me, by Rhizanthece to the system of 

 Nature, a chief point of the plan of which seems to me to consist in 

 an extensive interchange of characters, either positively by structure 

 or negatively by imitation of structure. Thirdly, I have adverted to 

 a want of uniformity in opinion of the founders regarding its rank 

 or value, incompatible, as it appears to me, with any group of the 

 system of Nature. And in conclusion, I beg to add that my impres- 

 sion is that RhizantheeB are an entirely artificial group, not even 

 sanctioned by practical facility, which is the only merit of an arti- 

 ficial association, and that its adoption is a retrograde step in the 

 course of philosophical botany." 



To the family of Rafflesiacece, Mr. Griffith adds a new genus with 



the following characters : — 



Sapria. 



Char. Gen. — Flores dioici. Perianthium duplici serie 5-partitum, aesti- 

 vatione imbricativum ; faux corona forata clausa ; tubus intus 20-cari- 

 natus. Mas : Antherce 20, uniseriatitn infra caput columnae fungiforme 

 verticillatae, discretae, 2 — 3-loculares, apice poi'osae. Ovarii cavitas 

 nulla. Fcem : AnthercB castratse. Ovarium 1-loculare ; placentae inde- 

 finitfe, pavietales ; ovula indefinita. ColumncB apex fungoideo-dilatatus 

 (e medio conum verrucosum exserens, disco piloso). Fructus . 



