1851.] Linnean Society. 113 



cnemum fruticosum, to which he ascribes copious albumen. As re- 

 gards the structure of the seed, Mr. Kippist agrees with Mr. Woods 

 in thinking that the S. radicans, Sm., would be much better placed 

 in Salicornia, as defined by Moquin-Tandon, than in his genus Ar- 

 throcnemum, to which he attributes a crustaceous testa and semi- 

 annular peripherical embryo, characters which Mr. Kippist had not 

 met with in any British species. In all the specimens gathered by 

 Mr. Woods on our own coast, the covering of the seed is thin and 

 membranous, and clothed with hairs, which differ much in length in 

 different species. In S. herbacea and the species most nearly related 

 to it, they are of a sigmoid form, spreading at the base, but curled 

 inwards at their extremity, unbranched, and destitute of septa or 

 spiral fibre. They are longest in the form which Mr. Woods calls 

 intermedia, much shorter in lignosa, while in radicans they are so 

 short, and so closely pressed against the integument of the seed, 

 that it is difficult to distinguish them : the seeds of this species, 

 however, were all obtained from one specimen, and may not have 

 been thoroughly ripe. 



In the plant for which Mr. Woods proposes the name of S. me- 

 gastachya (and which is in all probability a species oi Arthrocnemum), 

 a native of the South of Europe, the structure of the seeds is ex- 

 tremely different. The testa is hard, black, and crustaceous, quite 

 destitute of hairs, and covered with concentric rows of little tubercles. 

 The albumen is very evident, and principally confined to the 

 straighter side of the seed, the convex side being occupied by the 

 embryo, which is cylindrical and but slightly curved ; the thick, 

 fleshy cotjdedons, taken together, are about equal in diameter to the 

 radicle, which seems to be nearly continuous with them in direc- 

 tion, not bent sharply round upon them as in S. herbacea, and 

 probably in all the true Salicornias. 



February 4. 



Robert Brown, Esq., President, in the Chair. 



The President exhibited specimens of stems of Kingia australis, 

 R. Br., and Xanthorrhoea arborea, R. Br., together with drawings of 

 No. XLV. — Proceedings of the Linnean Society. 



