296 Bibliographical Notices. 



Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, 

 Vol. xxiv. Part 1 . 1863. 



Thanks to the exertions of its late excellent President (Prof. T. 

 Bell) and his successor (Mr. G. Bentham), the Linnean Society ap- 

 pears quite restored to its pristine activity. In addition to the usual 

 annual publication of the quarto ' Transactions ' in the autumn of 

 1862, and the ordinary quarterly 'Journal/ it has lately issued an- 

 other part of the ' Transactions,' in order to bring as quickly as 

 possible to the knowledge of botanists the exceedingly valuable 

 paper by Dr. Joseph D. Hooker " On Welwitschia, a new Genus of 

 Gnetacese." This paper occupies the whole of the part, extends to 

 48 pages, and is illustrated by 14 plates. We think this proceeding 

 in the highest degree creditable to the Society. When such a paper 

 is brought before it, it does well to deviate from its usual course. 

 The present essay has attracted the utmost attention from botanists. 

 Probably nothing of equal botanical interest has appeared since the 

 publication of Robert Brown's papers on Rafflesia, in the thirteenth 

 and nineteenth volumes of the same ' Transactions.' 



The first notice of Welwitschia was sent to Sir W. J. Hooker by 

 Dr. Fred. Welwitsch, its discoverer, in a letter from Loanda in South 

 Africa, dated Aug. 16, 1860, which was soon followed by tbe dis- 

 patch of specimens to Kew. This singular plant never possesses 

 more than the same two leaves, although it seems to be very long- 

 lived. These leaves appear to be the cotyledons, which, instead of 

 fading, as is usual, and giving place to ordinary leaves, are perma- 

 nent, and attain to a length of six feet and a breadth of two. They 

 are hard and leathery, and in the course of time split into longitu- 

 dinal strips. They spring from a groove situated between the crown 

 and stock of the plant, and lie flat, or nearly so, upon the ground. 



This is the only example of a " perennial flowering plant which 

 at no period has other vegetative organs than those proper to the 

 embrvo itself, the main axis being represented by the radicle, which 

 becomes a gigantic caulicle, and developes a root from its base and 

 inflorescences from its plumulary end, and the leaves being the two 

 cotyledons in a very highly developed and specialized condition." 

 The venation of the leaves is " parallel and free, like that of Mono- 

 cotyledons in general appearance ; but there is a total absence of 

 lateral vascular communications between the bundles," as in many 

 Coniferse. 



Its male flowers are structurally hermaphrodite, but their naked 

 ovule is always abortive. It seems therefore probable that the plant 

 is truly dioecious. Dr. Hooker considers its female flowers as gymno- 

 spermous, but that the plant is rather intermediate in character 

 between gymnospermous and angiospermous plants. 



We feel sure that many of our botanical readers will hasten to 

 peruse this remarkable essay, which is a permanent monument of 

 the high attainments of its author, such as it seldom can fall to the 

 lot of even a Hooker to obtain. 



