PROOEEDINOS OF SOCIETIES. 61 



thing as a bulbous rootstock or a narrow fleshy lorate leaf of the 

 Hyacinth type does not occur in Asparagacem at all. As regards dis- 

 tribution it is noticeable that whilst the bulbous tribes of Liliacem 

 possess a distinctly marked geographical individuality, this does not 

 hold good of the non-bulbous half of the natural order, and that the 

 260 species are scattered all over the world, and not concentrated in 

 any particular geographical area. The most curious structural pecu- 

 liarity in the group is the degradation of the leaf-organ which marks 

 the tribe Asparagea. The leaves have an alternate arrangement, and 

 invariably are developed in the form of a minute membranous scale. 

 This has a spur at the base, which in many of the shrubby species of 

 Asparagus is developed out into a woody spine, as firm in texture as 

 the indurated branchlet of the Sloe or Hawthorn. The function of 

 the leaf is filled by branches which are developed singly or in fas- 

 cicles, in the axils of these bract-like proper leaves. Sometimes these 

 branches are needle-like (cladodia) without any flattening, as in the 

 common garden Asparagus, and sometimes, as in MyrsiphyUum and 

 Ruscus, they assume all the appearance of proper leaves (phyllo- 

 cladia). The flowers in the 100 species of the genus Asparagus are 

 remarkably uniform, and it is principally upon characters furnished 

 by the shape and arrangement of these barren branches that the 

 species are marked. The stigma of the AspidistrecB is a very curious 

 and complicated organ. It is a plate, with eight troughs radiating 

 from a raised central umbilicus, and separated from one another by raised 

 walls, and closes in the tube of the perianth, in which the anthers 

 are placed, so thoroughly that it is difficult to tell how fertilisation is 

 eff'ected ; but upon turning it upside down four minute holes may be 

 seen, through which it would be possible for a very small insect to 

 creep. The paper was illustrated by plates of the three new genera 

 and one to show the structure of the stigma of these Aspidistrea, and 

 a large number of new species, especially in the genus Asparagus^ 

 were described. 



November I9th, 1874. — Prof. Allman, President, in the chair. Mr. 

 D. Hanbury exhibited dried specimens of the Eose vrhichis cultivated 

 in the Balkan for the production of Attar of Roses. Mr. Baker stated 

 that it was Eosa damascena. Miller, a cultivated race of R. gallica 

 [see p. 8]. — Dr. M. T. Masters read a paper entitled ** A Monograph 

 of Durionem,'" containing an enumeration of the genera and species of 

 the tribe, with descriptions of the new species found by Beccari in 

 Borneo, &c., and remarks on morphology and geographical distribu- 

 tion. The peculiar scaly pubescence, the compound stamens, the, in 

 some cases, very peculiar anthers and the muricate fruits all constitute 

 remarkable features. The author adheres to his published views with 

 respect to *' compound " stamens, in which he has the support of Payer, 

 Baillon, &c. The petals in Malvales appear to be sometimes autono- 

 mous organs, in other cases part of the staminal phalanges. 



