W. HOFMEISTER ON THE DEVELOPMENT OP ZOSTERA. 239 



ARTICLE VIII. 

 On the Development q/Zostera. By W. HOFMEISTER. 



[From the Botanische Zeitung, Feb. 13th & 20th, 1852.] 



THE peculiar physiological phaetiomena exhibited by Zoster a, 

 above all the unique formation of the pollen and the strange 

 structure of the embryo, have frequently and from an early 

 period drawn the attention of botanists to this remarkable genus 

 of plants. In most of the larger illustrated works devoted to 

 the local floras of Europe, the figures of Zoster a are accompanied 

 by careful and more or less accurate microscopic dissections, as 

 in Schkuhr, Hooker's Flora Londinensis, Reichenbach's Icones, 

 Schnizlein's Iconographie der naturlichen Familien, &c. The 

 form of the embryo has been a subject of discussion for almost 

 every author who has studied the comparative import of the 

 parts of the seedling plants of Monocotyledons*. Fritzschef 

 made known the curious condition and the circulation of the 

 contents of the pollen-cells ; Gronland J has very recently pub- 

 lished a contribution to the knowledge of Zostera marina, a 

 series of most acceptable microscopic researches on the develop- 

 mental history: imperfect, however, in reference to several of 

 the most interesting questions, especially to those connected 

 with the origin of the pollen and of the embryo. The following 

 essay, the materials for which I owe to the kindness of Prof. 

 Nolte of Kiel, will in some points complete, in others correct, 

 the paper published by Gronland. 



The inflorescence of Zostera, like that of the nearly allied 

 Potameae, is relatively terminal : the metamorphosed end of a 



* Gartner, De Fructibus, 1. 1 9 ; Bernhardi, Litintea, Bd. vii.; Jussieu, Annales 

 dea Sc. nat. 2*ne Ser. t. xi. p. 356. 



t Mem. de V Acad. de St. Petersbourg par div. Sav. t. iii. p. 703. pi. 3. 



I BoL Zeitung, vol. ix. p. 183 (1851). 



The plants which Prof. Nolle was kind enough to forward to me repeatedly, 

 at different seasons, were perfectly fresh when they arrived at Leipsic (30 or 40 

 hours after their removal from their native locality) ; even the adherent Chato- 

 morphce and Polysiphoniae retained their vitality unaffected. 



