Miscellaneous. 299 



3. Since I wrote my paper on Mr. Hodgson's collection of fishes, 

 I have ascertained that not only all the Indian species of Therapon 

 enter fresh waters freely, but that several are exclusively freshwater 

 fish. — A. Gunther. 



On the Constitution of the Fruit in the Cruciferce. 

 By M. E. Fournier. 



When a horizontal section is made of a bilocular Cruciferous 

 fruit, especially of a young ovary after the amalgamation of the two 

 parts of the septum, the latter is seen to be bifurcate at each ex- 

 tremity, and to embrace in the angle produced by this bifurcation 

 the elongated column from which the two rows of ovules originate, 

 described by the author as the placenta. This arrangement pro- 

 duces a triangular canal extended longitudinally within each placenta, 

 the horizontal section of which forms a triangle, with its apex at the 

 point of bifurcation of the two lamellae of the septum, and its base 

 upon the placenta itself. 



The placenta presents, passing inwards, the epidermis, a green 

 parenchyma, cortical fibres, ligneous fibres, and tracheae. The epi- 

 dermis presents projections formed by the cuticle, which are very 

 common in the Cruciferae. The green parenchyma completely sur- 

 rounds the placenta in most genera. It is continuous on each side 

 with the subepidermal parenchyma of the valves, and more internally 

 with the double origin of the septum, which springs directly from it. 

 The cortical fibres exist only on the outer side of the placental 

 column. The woody fibres, which contain chlorophyll at an early 

 period, form around the tracheae a ring which is thicker exteriorly 

 than interiorly. The trophosperms originate from the placenta, 

 sometimes within, sometimes outside of, the triangular canal ; in the 

 former case they perforate one of the lamellae of the septum, to 

 which they appear to be adnate. 



The valves present a double epidermis, the outer one with longi- 

 tudinally elongate cells, the interior with transverse cells, arranged 

 in two or three series. Within the outer epidermis there is a paren- 

 chyma, in which vascular bundles ramify in various ways, according 

 to "the genera and species ; this is separated from the inner epidermis 

 by a remarkable undescribed fibrous layer. It is formed of very 

 thick fibres, of which the section presents several concentric lines, 

 and strongly refracts light. The form of the section is circular in 

 Lunaria biennis and Psy chine, elliptical in Sisymbrium. These fibres, 

 when examined in the middle part of the horizontal section, form a 

 simple row in Lunaria and Sisymbrium, several rows with parallel 

 elements in Psychine, two rows with crossed elements in Fibigia 

 clypeata, Med., and several rows with alternately crossed elements 

 in Raphanus and Enarthrocarpus. Near the placentas they are 

 always approximated, in several rows, and form a thicker tissue than 

 in the middle of the valve. Analogous fibres are met with in many 

 fruits (Malus, Fraxinus, Niyella, Ervum) ; but they are never so 

 frequent in other families as in the Cruciferae. They are absent 

 from the walls of the ovary in the Resedacea and Capparidacece. 



