245 



instances of transition from a unilocular capsule and parietal placen- 

 tation to a bilocular fruit and central placentation. 



The author next details some very striking points of resemblance 

 between these plants and many Orchideae ; particularly in their seeds 

 and the structure and texture of the pericarp, as well as in their stem 

 and imperfectly developed leaves : and he observes that but for the 

 differences in the stamens and stigmata, " it would be difficult to draw 

 a line of distinction between the structure of these plants and that of 

 Orchideae." 



" Another analogous fact is deserving of notice : on examining the stigma of Dic- 

 tyostega after flowering, it will be found to be crowded with bundles of white cottony 

 filaments, which may be seen even with a common lens to consist of pollen-tubes issu- 

 ing in a body from the cells of the anthers and penetrating the stigma, leaving their 

 ends exserted, and clavately terminated by their respective grains, thus displaying in 

 a very beautiful manner the singular mode of fecundation so ably illustrated by Mr. 

 Brown in his admirable paper on that subject, published in the 16th volume of the 

 Transactions of this Society. The pollen also in its texture presents great resemblance 

 to that of the Orchideae, its component granules cohering in like manner into a solid 

 waxy mass previous to the dehiscence of the anthers.'' — p. 551. 



Art. XXXVI. — Some Account of the Curata, a Grass of the Tribe of 

 Bambuseae, of the Culm of which the Indians of Guiana prepare their 

 Sarbacans or Blow-pipes. By Robert H. Schomburgk, Esq. Com- 

 municated by the Secretary. 



During his first expedition in Guiana M. Schomburgk discovered 

 the plant from -which the Indians prepare their deadly arrow-poison, 

 (Phytol. 47). This discovery rendered our enterprizing traveller the 

 more anxious to identify the plant from which are obtained the reeds 

 used in the manufacture of the Indian blowpipes. Nearly forty years 

 had elapsed since Baron Humboldt saw a canoe nearly filled with 

 them, and was led to ask the question — " What is the Monocotyledo- 

 nous plant that furnishes these admirable reeds ? " and during that 

 period botanists had received no fiirther information relative to the 

 plant or its place of growth. 



" No wonder, therefore," says M. Schomburgk, " that next to the plant which fur- 

 nishes the active principle of the famous Urari or Wurali poison, the discovery of the 

 reed by means of which the Indian is enabled to send his poisoned arrow with so much 

 precision into his intended victim, should have been a point of the greatest interest to me. 



" But in answer to all my questions to the Indians as to the locality from whence 

 they procured the reeds that play such an important part in the construction of the 

 blowpipe, they merely pointed to the west, and gave me to understand that it was far 

 away. The value which the Indians of Guiana set upon these reeds, and the uncer- 

 tainty from whence they came, increased their interest ; and one of my first ques- 



