Botanische Gärten und Institute. 105 



The Stern is polystelic, and of the gamostelic type; there may 

 be two annular steles, with the centre of the stein oecupied by 

 ground-tissue, or in shorter branches of the rhizome a third vascular 

 Strand may occupy the axial region. Eaeh stele consists of xylem 

 tracheids and associated parenchyma, surrounded by phloem 

 composed ot large sieve-tubes, witli numerous sieve-plates on the 

 lateral walls, and phloem parenchyma; an endodermis and peri- 

 cycle Surround eaeh stele, and in the case of the annular steles 

 these layers occur both internally and externally. At the nodes 

 the outer annular stele bends up into the leaf-stalk, and a branch 

 is also given off from the margin of a gap formed in the inner 

 annular stele, the axial vascular Strand may or may not be in 

 continuity with the meristele of the leaf. The petiole is traversed 

 by a Single stele, sirailar in shape to that of certain Cyatheaceous 

 Ferns; towards the top of the leaf-stalk the stele alters its form, and 

 gradually gives off separate U-shaped branches to supply the pinnae. 



The most interesting feature in the structure of the pinnules 

 is the marked papillose form of the lower epidermal cells. The 

 roots have a triarch stele enclosed by a few layers of thick brown 

 sclerous cells. 



In structure Matonia 2^ßctinata presents points of agreement 

 with several families of Ferns, on the whole approximatiug more 

 closely to Cycdheaceae than to any other faraily ; but the peculiarities 

 are such as to fuUy confirm the conclusion previously drawn Irom 

 external characters that Matonia should be placed in a separate 

 division of the l'ilices. 



After comparing the structure of the Malayan species with 

 that of other Fern genera, the paper concludes with an attempt to 

 give an account of the geological history of the Matonineae. The 

 genera Laccopteris and Matonidium are dealt with at some length, 

 and reference is made to other Mesozoic Ferns, which may probably 

 be included in the sam.e group. 



The data furnished by an exaraination of palaeontological 

 evidence lead to the conclusion that in Matonia we have a survival 

 of a family of Ferns, now confined to a few localities in Borneo 

 and the Malay peninsula, and represented by two living species, 

 which in the Mesozoic epoch had a wide geographical ränge, being 

 especially abundant in the European area. 



Origiiial-Referaie aus bolan. Gärten und Instiiuten. 



Aus dem botanischün Institut Bern. 



Tscliircli, A., Kleine Beiträge zur Pharmakobotanik und 

 Pharmakochemie, VII.*} 



Die Tela conductrix der Vanillefrucht. In dem 

 anatomischen Atlas der Pharmakognosie, den ich mit Herrn Dr. 



*) Soparat-Abdruck aus der Schweizer Wochenschrift für Chemie und 

 Pharmacia. 1898. Nr. 52. 



