1851.] Linnean Society. 147 



walls and trunks of trees, like the Creeper, a fact which Dr. Forster 

 considers as tending to support his opinion of the reasoning powers 

 of animals. Up to this time the Cockchafer (Melolontha vulgaris), 

 although usually abundant, had not made its appearance ; nor had 

 another constant inhabitant of the gardens, Buprestis nitens, yet been 

 seen. The large black Cockroach had increased to an alarming 

 extent in many of the old houses and on the premises of the bakers. 

 Some foreign newspapers had erroneously spoken of the weather as 

 fine in Belgium, but there had been only three tolerably fine days 

 since the 21st of March, and the average temperature since the 25th 

 of that month had been 8° Fahr. below the mean. 



Read also, a Memoir " On the position of the Raphe in Anatropal 

 Ovules." By Benjamin Clarke, Esq., F.L.S. &c. 



Mr. Clarke believes that this character, which has hitherto at- 

 tracted but partial attention, is a character of much constancy in the 

 several families, and therefore deserving a more complete examina- 

 tion. He states the most usual position of the raphe, when each of 

 the carpellary margins bears a single row of anatropal ovules, as in 

 Pceonia, to be lateral and turned towards the raphe of the ovules of 

 the opposite row ; and the curvature of the ovule has the same di- 

 rection even in cases where the ovule is not anatropal, as in Colutea 

 arborescens. The position of raphe with reference to placenta is less 

 regular where the ovules are more numerous, but in some cases, as 

 in Gomphocarpus, it is observed to be always next the placenta, 

 the ovules being pendulous with long funiculi ; and in Cuphea and 

 Reaumur ia also next the placenta with the ovules erect. 



It is, however, when the anatropal ovule is single that Mr. Clarke 

 believes the position of the raphe affords the most important cha- 

 racters, and he proceeds to consider the various relations which it 

 bears to the placenta under six diff^erent heads, as follows : — 



1 . Ovule pendulous ; raphe turned away from the placenta. 



2. Ovule pendulous ; raphe lateral. 



3. Ovule pendulous ; raphe next the placenta. 



4. Ovule erect ; raphe turned away from the placenta. 



5. Ovule erect; raphe lateral. 



6. Ovule erect ; raphe next the placenta. 



1 . The pendulous ovule, ivith the raphe turned away from the pla- 

 centa, was first observed by Mr. Brown, and afterwards figured and 

 described by Dr. Schleiden as " ovulum spurie pendulum anatropum, 

 raphe aversa." Mr. Clarke finds it to be of more frequent occur- 

 rence than is generally supposed ; it is found among Endogenous 



