28 NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
perfectly indehiscent, leaving small circular cells, surrounded by thick ligneous 
walls, without showing any marks of division ; there is no analogy whatever 
between this structure and that of Oxycladus. The absence of the alary ex- 
pansion of the testa, so common in Bignoniacea, is urged as a reason for ex- 
cluding this genus from that family, but the argument is not valid, where as in 
Oxycladus only one of the ovules becomes impregnated, and where it is thus 
left at full liberty to acquire the size and shape of the whole space of the cell. 
The want of wings in the seeds occurs however in other Bignoniaceous plants. 
. * . The last consideration as regards Oxycladus is not the least important; its 
seeds are exalbuminous, as in Bignoniace@, whereas in those of the Myoporacee 
the embryo is always contained within albumen.” 
On Marsilia and Pilularia. By Alexander Braun. (* Veber Marsilia und 
Pilularia, etc.). Reprinted from the Proceedings of the Berlin 
Academy, 1863. 
This is an abstract of another addition to the long series of valuable 
memoirs which Professor Alexander Braun has presented to the Berlin 
Academy, and which is now published in hope that it may induce bota- 
nists to furnish the author with suggestions previous to the issue of the 
complete memoir, illustrated by figures, in the Transactions of the learned 
body before whom it was read. In this paper Professor Braun does 
the same for Marsilea, or Marsilia, as he writes it, and Pilularia as he 
has done on previous occasions for Equisetacee, Chara, Isoëtes, and other 
roups. Having made himself perfect master of the subject, he com- 
pletely refutes those superficial observers who were ready to refer all the 
known species of Marsilea to M. quadrifolia, and all Pilularias to P. 
globulifera ; and when the memoir itself shall have been published, we 
shall probably hear no more of the extreme variation to which a single 
aquatic plant like Marsilea quadrifolia is subject. The author disputes 
the correctness of the generally received idea that all water and swamp 
plants enjoy an extensive geographical distribution, by showing that 
amongst them similar differences prevail as amongst terrestrial species. 
For instance, while the Characee are generally widely diffused, most 
Marsileas, Pilularias, and Isoétes are extremely local, a phenomenon 
partly explained by the size and weight of the macrospores. 
The number of known species of Marsilea amounts to 37,—or 30, if 
a few less marked forms be lumped together, such as M. mucronata 
with uncinata and vestita, M. Coromandelina with trichopoda, M. erosa 
with crenata, M. brachypus with gracilenta, and M. strigosa with pubes- 
