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XXIII. Eemarka on Gnetum. £1/ the late William Griffith, Esq., F.L.S., Madras 

 Medical Service. Commmiicated by A. Henfrey, Esq., F.JI.S., F.L.S., Professor of 

 Botany, King's College. 



Read April 21st, 1859. 



Prefatory Note by Prof. Henfrey. 



1 HE following paper is the original from which were derived the particulars communi- 

 cated l>y Dr. Lindley, in the article Gnetacem, in his • Vegetable Kingdom ;' and it is now 

 brought forward under the following circumstances. 



My curiosity was excited by Mr. Griffith's account, quoted by Dr. Lindley, of the exist- 

 ence of a long convoluted suspensor in the o\Tile of Gnetidtn. It appeared to me that this 

 indicated an additional affinity between the OnetacecB and the Coniferce and Cycadacece, 

 and that this would be stUl more striking if it were accompanied by the phenomena of 

 polyembryony, such as are met with in the undoubted Gymnosperms. On examination of 

 some specimens, I fovmd that the lower end of the long convoluted suspensor does diidde 

 into a number of distinct processes, as in Conifers, and that the embryo is developed at 

 the end of one of these. I now became anxious to examine some flowers in an early stage 

 of development with a view to ascertain if Gnetum produced corjniscida ; which I thought 

 might have been overlooked by Mr. Griffith, his Memoir having been written before the 

 publication of Mi". Brown's celebrated Memou* on the Plurality of Embryos ia the 

 Coniferce. 



Thi-ough the kindness of Dr. Hooker, I obtained from the Kew Museum a supply of 

 specimens of Gnetum in various stages of growth. From the same friend I learnt that 

 the original Memoir of Mr. Griffith was in the hands of the Secretary of the Society, and, 

 with the consent of Dr. Lindley, Mr. Bennett placed the paper in my hands. The study 

 of this paper, under the light of my own observations, has led me to attach great im- 

 portance to it, and I have recommended its publication before communicating the results 

 of my investigations, on accoimt of the author's having forestalled me in the greater part 

 of the facts important in the history of development of this genus, and rendered it muie- 

 cessary for me to do more than supplement his observations in a few points, before enter- 

 ing upon the general conclusions I have drawn from his and my o\vn studies. 



I hope shortly to offer a paper on this subject for the consideration of the Linnean 

 Society, and shall merely say at present, that my investigations lead me to look very 

 favom-ably upon the opinion expressed by Prof. J. G. Agardh, in his new ' Theoria Syste- 

 matis Plantarum,' that the Gnetacece are related even more closely to the Loranthacea 

 than to the Coniferce. 



London, January 7, 1859. 



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