558 



consequence of this arrangement, tlieir tissue, when divested of the parenchyma, re- 

 sembles coarse book muslin. Both male and female spadix are stated to pass through 

 a fissure in the base of the accompanying leaf-stalk. The drupe is fifteen inches in 

 length, about three feet in circumference, and weighs from thirty to forty pounds ; as 

 many as seven well-fonned drupes are sometimes seen on a single spadix. The fe- 

 cundation is occasionally imperfect, and then the ovary expands and lengthens, but 

 ' does not assume the usual form, and at the end of two or three years it falls off. A 

 female plant at Mahe flowered for several years without producing fruit, owing to the 

 absence of a male plant. In 1833, a male flower was procured from an estate a few 

 miles distant, and suspended in the tree ; about two months aftei-wards one of the budi> 

 expanded, and the mature fruit fell from the tree at the end of 1841. 



November 1. — R. Brown, Esq., V.P., in the chair. 



Jonathan Pereira, M.D., F.L.S., presented specimens of the different varieties of 

 Ceylon, Malabar and Java cardamoms, &c. 



Read, " A Notice of the African Grain called Fundi or Fundungi." By Robert 

 Clarke, Esq., Senior Assistant-Surgeon to the Colony of Sierra Leone. This grain is 

 about the size of mignonette-seed, and is said to be cultivated in the village of Kissy 

 and the neighbourhood of Waterloo, by individuals of the Soosoo, Foulah, Bassa and 

 Joloff nations, by whom it is called "hungry rice." Mr. Clarke describes the mode of 

 cultivation, and the various methods of preparing the grain for food ; and he is of opin- 

 ion that if imported into Europe, it might prove a valuable addition to the list of light 

 farinaceous articles of food in use among the delicate or convalescent. 



Specimens of the grass which accompanied Mr. Clarke's communication had becD 

 examined by Mr. Kippist, Libr. L.S., who added some observations on its botanica? 

 characters. It is slender, with digitate spikes, and has much of the habit of Digitaria, 

 but on account of the absence of the small outer glume existing in that genus, it must 

 be referred to Paspalum. Mr. Kippist regards it as an undescribed species, although 

 specimens, collected by Afzelius at Sien'a Leone, are in the herbaria of Sir J. E. Smith 

 and Sir Joseph Banks. Mr. Kippist names it P. exile, and gives the characters. 



Read also a letter from N. B. Ward, Esq. F.L.S., relative to the introduction of 

 the Musa Cavendishii into the Navigators' Islands, (Phytol. 527). 



November 15. — E. Forster, Esq., V.P., in the chair. 



Mr. T. S. Ralph, A.L.S., presented numerous fruits and seeds collected in the 

 neighbourhood of Aurungabad. 



Read, a note " On the pennanent varieties of Papaver orientale, Z." By T. Fors- 

 ter, M.B., F.L.S., &c. The author states that ever since the introduction of Papaver 

 bracteatum, Lindl. into England, he has regarded it as a permanent variety of P. ori- 

 entale. This name he retains for the species, both as being the older one, and appli- 

 cable to all the varieties ; of which the four following he considers as permanent : — 



1. P. orientale bracteatum; seeds always perfect. 2. P. orientale prcecox, the 

 " Monkey Poppy' ' of the old gardeners ; flowering in May with the preceding, seeds 

 always sterile. 3. P. orientale serotinum ; flowering in June, seeds always imperfect. 

 4. P. orientale, capsula etfloribus longioribus ; flowers in May, seeds sometimes per- 

 fect. Only met with in continental gardens. Dr. Forster states that he has been as- 

 sured in the South of Europe, that P. orientale bracteatum yields the best opium, and 

 that in the largest quantity ; and as this plant seeds freely and suits the English soil, 

 he thinks it might be advantageously substituted for P. somniferum. 



Read also, a note " On Secale cornutum, the Ergot of Rye :" and " On a Species 



