70 REPORT — 1851. 



gi'eat elevation. The observations of the author relate to the centre of the Himalayan 

 chain, between the river Kalee and the Sutlej, a space of 200 miles, and extending 

 N.W, from the plain to a distance of 120 miles. 



On some Tubular Cavities in the Coralline Crag at Sudbourne and Gedgrave in 

 Suffolk. By Searles V. Wood, F.G.S. 



BOTANY AND ZOOLOGY, including PHYSIOLOGY. 



Botany. 



On the Morphology of the Fruit in the Crucifera, as illustrated by a Monstrosity 

 in the Wallflower. By Professor G. J. Allman, M.D., M.R.I.A. 



Professor Allman laid before the Section a singular monstrosity which recently oc- 

 curred to him in a plant of common wallflower growing in the Botanic Gardens of 

 Trinity College, Dublin, and which appeared to throw considerable light on the mor- 

 phology of the fruit in the Cruciferae. The monstrosity consisted in the conversion of 

 the six stamina into carpels, which faced the axis of the flower and carried ovules on 

 both margins : in the greater number of instances these carpels were imperfectly 

 closed, and were united by their margins into a tube which formed a complete sheath 

 surrounding the pistil. In other cases however the adventitious carpels remained 

 distinct, and each was then seen to be composed of an ovary, style and stigma. It 

 was also evident that the ovary with the short style resulted from the transformation 

 of the filament, while the stigma was plainly a transformed anther ; but what was 

 especially interesting was the distinctly bilobed condition of the stigma in these soli- 

 tary carpels ; each lobe was evidently derived from a corresponding lobe of the 

 transformed anther, and was placed opposite to the marginal row of ovules ; the 

 stigma indeed here closely resembled that of the normal fruit, and offered a very ob- 

 vious explanation of the anomalous fact, that the stigmata in the latter appear to be 

 situated opposite to the placenta. We have only to suppose two of these adventitious 

 and imperfectly-closed carpels to unite face to face, and a stigma with the exact for- 

 mation which we find in the normal fruit of the Cruciferae will be the result. The 

 latter therefore is evidently formed of two bilobed stigmata, united so completely as 

 to obliterate the traces of union, while the bilobed condition of the individual stigmata 

 is in no I'espect interfered with ; so that what appears as a simple element in the 

 compound stigma of the cruciferous pistil is really composed of two half-elements, 

 namely, one lobe of each of the two elementary stigmata. This opinion has already had 

 its advocates, but it seems to have been hitherto lU'ged on purely theoretical grounds. 

 From all this it would seem further to follow that the ovary of the cruciferous carpel 

 corresponds to a petiole or phyllodium, while the bilobed stigma will represent the 

 lamina of the carpellary leaf. 



In many of the adventitious and imperfectly-closed carpels a membranous ex- 

 pansion extends inwards from each margin over the concavity of the carpel, but 

 without imiting with that from the opposite margin. These expansions correspond 

 to the spurious dissepiment of the normal fruit, and are here plainly seen to be 

 derived from the placentae. 



On some Facts tending to show the probability of the Conversion of Asci into 

 Spores in certain Fungi. By the Rev. M. J. Bekkelet and C. E. Broomb. 



After alluding to the observations of other botanists on this subject, the authors 

 communicated as follows. The species which have afforded the materials for the 

 following remarks are more especially three, viz. Tympanis saligna, Tode; Sphcsria 

 inquinans, Tode; and Hendersonia vnitabilis, Berkeley and Broome. Tympanis 

 saligna scarcely differs from a lichen, except in the total absence of a crust, and 

 consequently of gonidia. Its apothecia are at first closed, but at a later period of 

 growth the fructifying disc or hymenium is exposed. On the same twig, in this in- 

 stance of the common Privet, some specimens exhibited all the characters of Tym' 



