'' Berlin, April 3, 1882. 



" Dear Sir — For your interesting remittances of tlie 4tli 

 February last, I render you my sincerest thanl^s in the name 

 o£ the Botanical Society and in my own. 



" Your two papers upon the habits of the Cymodocea 

 antarctica have interested me in a high degree ; the riddle, 

 which has occupied me for half a generation (more accurately, 

 since 1867), is in its main points solved by your admirable 

 observations. 



"As far as I could, I critically examined the material kindly 

 sent me by you. I find your statements of the facts and the 

 illustrations of the same confirmed. 



" I cannot, however, entirely agree with your explanation 

 of the same. According to my opinion the whole process is to 

 be looked upon as ' vegetative rejuvenescency.' This expression 

 of the late eminent morphologist and biologist, A. Braun, my 

 ever-memorable teacher, suits in this case most fitly the nature 

 of it. The sexual organs you have not observed, and just this 

 prolific rejuvenesce is qualified to explain their excessive 

 rarity. The 'male organs' are most likely animal inhabitants 

 of the plant, which may probably be specifically determinable. 

 Also in the 'fruits' I can find nothing of the organs of a 

 pistillate blossom, seeds, &c. The male flower is figured by 

 Gaudichaud, consisting of two stamens, joined together longi- 

 tudinally, borne upon a long stalk, and enveloped in leafy 

 foliage, the sheathing of which they probably little surmount. 

 Each partition of the stamina is surmounted by separate 

 spikelets. 



" The structure of the female flowers appears, by the only 

 specimen submitted to me by Baron F. von Mueller, not to 

 differ much from that of the other species. They also consist 

 of two adjacent free carpels, each surmounted by two long 

 ribbon-like stigmata (or pistils). The fruit of those species of 

 Cymodocea that is known in the locality of their own home — 

 viz., C nodosa, rotundata, isoetifolia, manatoram — is always 

 strongly compressed, and about half-circularly round, fur- 

 nished with a hard 'bony' shell, which splits along the margin 

 when germinating. 



" The development of the processes you have observed, I 

 imagine to take place in about the following manner : — About 

 the present time — therefore in your autumn — an organ is 

 formed at the apex of a leafy branchlet, recognisable at once 

 by its turning in a right angle to the previous position of the 

 leaves. The same, must in consequence of being con- 

 cealed in the preceding foliage, not be easy to detect, 

 although the lowest leaf of this bud (from which the 

 ' horny cup' originates) may betray itself to the touch. This 



