OF THE EMBRYOS IN THE SEEDS OF CONIFERiE. 573 



markably modified ; and they have ascertained some points 

 in Finns itself that I had overlooked. 



In this memoir M. de Mirbel refers to his early obser- 

 vations on the structure of the seeds of Cycas wliich occur 

 in an essay read before the Academy of Sciences in 

 October 1810, and soon after published in the ' Annales 

 du Museum/^ 



These observations and the figures illustrating them 

 clearly prove M. de Mirbel's knowledge of the plurality of 

 embryos in Cycas at that period. And in his recent memoir 

 on Conifer ce he regards them as giving the earliest notice of 

 that remarkable structure ; stating also that my first publi- 

 cation on the same subject was in 1835. 



But as the ' Prodronms I'lorac Novae Hollandia)' was 

 published before M. de Mirbel's essay in the 'Annales du 

 JNlus^um/ which appears from his references to that work 

 in the essay in question, he must have overlooked the fol- 

 lowing passages : — 



'' In Cycadi angulata puncta areae depressac apicis seminis 

 totidem canalibus brevibus respondent gelatina homogenea 

 prinmm repletis et membrana propria instructis, unico 

 quantum observavimus embryonifero, quo augente reliqui 

 mox obliterati sunt." — Prodr. p. 347. 



" Structura huic omnino similis hactenus absque exemplo 

 nee ulla analoga (nempe embryones plures in distinctis 

 cavitatibus ejusdem albuminis) nisi in Cycadi et nounun- 

 (piam in Visco cognita sit." — Prodr. p. 307. 



I may add, that this structure of Cycas was ascertained 

 in living plants on the east and north coasts of New Hol- 

 land in 1802 and 1803. 



The earliest observer of the principal fact, however, was 

 probably the late Aubert du Petit Thouars, w^lio in a disser- 

 tation on the structure and affinities of Cycas published in 

 1S04," distinctly notices the j)oints on the- surface and the 

 corresponding corpuscula within the apex of thetilbumen, into 

 which corj)uscula he hazards the conjecture that the grains ls7s 

 of pollen enter and become the future embryos. This, in 



' Annales du Museum d'llist. Nat. torn, xvi, p. 252, tab. 20. 

 '■' Histoire dcs Vcg6taux des lies d'Afrique, p. 9, tab. 2, n. 



