74 Proceedings of Philosophical Societies. [Jui/y, 



versed, and its orifice is very difficult to perceive. It is only 

 within these few years that it has been observed in England by 

 $fr. Salisbury, and in France by MM. Poiteau, Mirbel, and 

 Schubert. These botanists have not hesitated to consider it as 

 the siigma ; and this was natural, because it had been agreed 

 upon that the stigma of the yew, the thuya, the cypress, &c. 

 was placed at the orifice of the cup : but farther researches have 

 undeceived MM. Mirbel and Schubert. By a delicate dissec- 

 tion, they have ascertained that' what is generally taken for the 

 female flower in coniferous plants is only the cup, the form of 

 which resembles that of a pistil, and that it contains in its cavity 

 the true flower, which is provided with a membranous calix, 

 adhering to the ovarium, and with a stigma, sessil in all the 

 genera except the ephedra. 



It must be obvious that this structure, so different from what 

 had hitherto been imagined, will occasion great changes in the 

 explanation of the characters, of the family, and of the genera. 



According to Mirbel, the female flower of the plants of the 

 family of cycas has an organization analogous to that of coni- 

 ferous plants. This supports the opinion of M. Ricard, who 

 places these two families together among dicotyledonous plants; 

 but M. Mirbel is of opinion, that as long as the characters of 

 vegetation serve for the base of the two great divisions of plants 

 with visible flowers, the cycadece cannot be separated from the 

 palms. 



The organization of the male flower of mosses has likewise 

 engaged the attention of Mirbel and Schubert. After Hedwig, 

 it would have been difficult to discover any thing new on this 

 subject ; but the bursting of the anthers, and the emission of 

 the pollen, were phenomena doubted of by several botanists. 

 Our two botanists declare that they have seen the most unequi- 

 vocal proofs of the existence of these phenomena. The organs 

 which Hedwig calls male in the Polytrichum commune, placed 

 upon water, split at the summit, and threw out an oleaginous 

 liquid, which extended itself like a thin cloud on the surface of 

 the water. Miibeland Schubert then subjected to comparative 

 observation the pollen of a great number of phenerogamous 

 plants, and ascertained that they exhibited the same phenomena 

 as the male organs of mosses. This induces them to think that 

 the parts called anthers by Hedwig may be nothing else than 

 simple grains of pollen of a particular shape. 



M. Mirbel has continued his researches on germination. He 

 has observed, contrary to the generally received opinion, that 

 the radicle does not always make its appearance first. In many 

 cyperaceous plants it is always the plumula which appears first. 

 The same botanist has republished, with important modifications 

 and additions, his opinions respecting the organization of stems, 



