TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 597 



generally of four, elongated cells or vessels, with or m ithout 

 transverse septa, originates. The funiculi are not unfrequently 

 ramified, each branch or division terminating in a minute rudi- 

 ment of an embryo. But as the lateral branches of the funiculi 

 usually consist of a single elongated cell or vessel, while the 

 principal or terminal branch is generally formed of more than 

 one, embryos in Coniferce may originate either in one or in several 

 cells, even in the same funiculus. 



A similar ramification in the funiculi of the Cycas circinalis 

 has been observed by the author. 



Instances of the occasional introduction of more than one 

 embryo in the seeds of the several plants belonging to other 

 families have long been known, but their constant plurality 

 and regular arrangement have hitherto only been observed in 

 Cycadece and Coniferce. 



Oh the Cocculus Indicus of Commerce. By G. A. W. Arnott, 



M.D. 



In Wight and Arnott's Prodromus Florce Peninsidce Indioe 

 OrientaUs, vol. i. p. 446, the Menispermum Cocculus of Linnaeus, 

 the Cocculus tuberosus of De Candolle, or the Cocculus indicus 

 of commerce, is removed from the genus Cocculus as consti- 

 tuted by De Candolle, although De Candolle considered it the 

 type of that genus, and placed in the Anamirta of Colebrooke. 

 {Linn. Soc. Trans, xiii. pp. 52 and 66.) No reasons for this 

 change are there given, and it is the object of this paper to 

 state them. The proof depends, 1st, On the general accuracy 

 of the figure of the fruit given by Gjsrtner {De Fruct. et Sem. i. 

 t. 70. f 7.), which is presumed to have been taken from a berry 

 obtained from a shop ; 2nd, On the correspondence of that 

 figure with berries of the officinal plant procured from the 

 museum of the materia medica class in the University of Edin- 

 burgh ; 3rd, On the correspondence of the above-mentioned 

 figure and berries with fruit in Arnott's herbarium, and which 

 fruit still remains attached to a branch with its leaves ; 4th, On 

 a specimen of the male inflorescence, which comes from the 

 same district as that in fruit, and exactly resembles it in every 

 point, except having male flowers instead of berries ; 5th, On 

 a comparison of flowering male specimens from the botanic 

 garden of Calcutta, in the herbarium of the Linnsean Society of 

 London, and which specimens were derived from berries planted 

 in that garden by Dr. Roxburgh, and transmitted to him by 

 Heyne, from Malabar, as the plant of commerce ; 6th, On the 

 total dissimilarity of the male flowers from those of the genus 



