Miscellaneous. 139 
The difference is greater in Aglaonema marantefolia, Schott. 
The bilocular anther is furnished with a short filament, and the 
connective does not form a plate. Lach cell is divided into two 
locelli by a thick septum, absorbed beneath the terminal pore where 
the locelli communicate. The inner wall of each locellus is lined 
throughout with a strong layer of perpendicular fibrous cells: hence 
the quadrilocular structure of the anther. The fibrous layer is 
produced upon the outer walls up to the orifice, where it is covered 
directly by the epidermis. 
Hence there is no necessary correlation between apicilar dehis- 
cence and the absence of fibrous cells. The presence or absence of 
these is a character of more constancy and of a higher order than 
the mode of dehiscence. Thus in the Aroidez we pass by insensible 
gradations from Richardia, &c., in which the apicilar dehiscence is 
most strongly marked, through drum and Dracunculus, to rimate 
dehiscence, either transverse (Arisarum) or longitudinal (Calla, 
Anthurium, &c.), whilst the fibrous layer is still strongly developed ; 
and this is further seen from the complete absence of these cells in 
Lycopersicum (where the dehiscence is longitudinal), and their nearly 
complete absence in Solanum (where it is apicilar). Moreover api- 
cilar dehiscence is by no means common to all the genera of the 
families in which M. Chatin has ascertained the general absence 
of the fibrous cells: thus the Epacrideze open their unilocular 
anthers by a longitudinal fissure ; among the Ericaceze Leiophyllum, 
Pieris, and Epigea, and among the Melastomaceze Mouriria, Meme- 
cylon, &c., open their bilocular anthers by two longitudinal fissures; 
lastly, in the Monotropeze the unilocular anthers of Monotropa and 
Hypopitys open by a transverse fissure, whilst the bilocular anthers 
of Pterospora have a longitudinal dehiscence ; and yet the fibrous 
layer is wanting in all these genera. 
M. Chatin has also observed the structure of some abnormal 
anthers (those of Hypowis erecta and Pittosporum Tobira), ‘* which 
are destitute of fibrous cells at the same time that they are empty 
of pollen, or only contain it in an imperfect state; these sterile 
anthers have, no doubt, been seized by an arrest of development act- 
ing simultaneously upon the tissues of the second membrane and 
upon the pollen ;”’ and from this he concludes ‘that in some plants 
the stamens of which have undergone an arrest of development, the 
absence of fibrous cells coincides with the imperfect evolution of-the 
pollen.”” The author’s observations upon Ranunculus Ficaria show 
that something very different may be the case. The anthers of the 
bulbiferous variety of this species produce no pollen, and this is the 
sole cause of the sterility of the plant. Each anther-cell, divided 
into two locelli by a septum, has its valve formed of an epidermis 
thickened by a layer of spiral and reticulated cells which does not 
extend over the septum or upon the inner wall of the cell formed by 
the connective, as appears to be generally the case in the Ranuncult. 
In the interior of each locellus there is a long mass narrowed at the 
two extremities, formed of several rows of large, polyhedric, colour- 
less, thick-walled cells furnished with numerous dots; these cells 
