PROCEEDINGS 
OF 
THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY. 
1846-7. con Nien G4. 
April 12th, 1847. 
REV. HUMPHREY LLOYD, D.D., President, in the 
Chair. 
Abraham Whyte Baker, Esq. ; James W. M. Berry, Esq. ; 
Richard V. Boyle, Esq.; Sir Thomas Esmonde, Bart. ; Na- 
thaniel Hone, Esq.; and Philip Jones, Esq. ; were elected 
Members of the Academy. 
Dr. Allman made a communication on the Structure of 
_ the Fruit and Mechanism of Dehiscence in some of the Hepa- 
tice, and on the probable Origin of the Organs known by the 
_ name of Elaters in these Plants. 
In this paper the author demonstrated the existence, in the 
sporangia of Jungermannia, Marchantia, and Fegatella, of 
spiral cells similar to those found in the lining membrane of 
the anthers of flowering plants. The sporangium of these 
_ genera is composed of a single layer of such cells immediately 
enclosing the spores and elaters. The author described the 
 eireumstances which he had observed to attend the phenome- 
non of dehiscence in Fegatella conica. In this plant the pe- 
duncle of the sporangium is connected with the fundus of the 
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