265 



' On the Early Stages of Lenianea flnviatilis, Agardh. By G. H. K. 

 Thvvaites, Esq., Lecturer on Botany and Vegetable Physiology at the 

 Bristol Medical School. Communicated by the Rev. M.J. Berkeley, 



r.L.S.' 



* On Meliantheae, a new Natural Order, proposed and defined by 

 J. E. Planchon, Docteur-es-Sciences. Communicated by the Secre- 

 tary.' 



' Some Account of an undescribed Fossil Fruit. By Robert Brown, 

 Esq., D.C.L., F.R.S., V.P.L.S.' 



The paper by the late Mr. Griffiths on Dischidia Rafl9esiana will 

 be found highly interesting to physiological botanists, although I 

 think many of these will hesitate to accept the learned author's con- 

 clusion. The following interesting passage is worthy of a careful 

 perusal : — 



'' This curious plant occurs abundantly about Mergui, and affects 

 old and partially decayed trees. I have hence been able to examine 

 abundance of specimens loaded with ascidia of different degrees of 

 development. 1 offer the observations relating to these curious ap- 

 pendages, as I conceive they throw light on their nature, which, if 

 analogy holds good, appears to have been generally misunderstood. 

 The commonly adopted opinion, and that which Dr. Lindley advo- 

 cates in his ' Outlines of the First Principles of Botany,' and in his 

 * Introduction to the Natural Orders,' is, that the pitcher is a modifi- 

 cation of the petiole, and the lid, or operculum, of the lamina. The 

 structure of Dionaea certainly seems in favour of this opinion. Mr. 

 Brown, in his ' Remarks on the Structure and Affinities of Cephalo- 

 tus' (Loud, and Edinb. Phil. Mag. Oct. 1832), says, that ascidia in 

 all cases are manifestly formed from the leaves, but does not refer the 

 pitcher or lamina to any particular part of the leaf. 



" The ascidia of this species have, as might be expected, the same 

 arrangement as the leaves ; they are opposite and shortly pedicellate. 

 They are however crowded together, while the leaves are distant. In 

 shape they are oblong-ovate, somewhat compressed, with a few eleva- 

 tions and depressions, which correspond to those formed in the leaves 

 by the nervures. They are open at the base, the margins being rounded 

 off, owing to their being inflected into the pitcher in the shape of a 

 linguiform process. Immediately below the base they are slightly 

 constricted. The opening is invariably directed upwards. Their co- 

 lour externally is that of the leaves, — a dingy yellowish green, often 

 inclining to glaucous. Internally they are of a rich dark purple, 

 studded with innumerable and very minute white spots. 



Vol IV. 2 m 



