6 Dr.G. Dickie on the Physiology of Fecundation in Plants. 
we have a just value for those who were but her disciples and m- 
structed by her. Their time and abilities both bemg short to 
her ; which, as she was first designed by Divme Wisdom, so 
may her vast dimensions best be adjudged of in being compared 
therewith. It will therefore be our prudence not to insist upon 
the imvidious question, which of her scholars have taken the 
fairest measure of her; but to be well satisfied, that as yet she 
hath not been circumscribed by any. Nor doth it more behove 
us to consider how much of the nature of vegetation may he be- 
fore us yet unknown, than to believe a great part thereof to be 
knowable. Not concluding from the acknowledged, much less 
supposed unsuccessfulness of any man’s undertakings, but from 
what may be accounted possible as to the nature of things them- 
selves.” 
On the Ovule of Narthecium ossifragum. 
It is unnecessary to give any minute aecount of the ovarram 
in this plant ; suffice it to say, that about the time of mpregna- 
tion, in general form it resembles a Florence flask, the stigma is 
perforated, a canal traverses the style and appears to communi- 
cate with each cell of the ovary. Some authors seem to have 
misunderstood the structure and mode of attachment of the 
ovules: thus Endlicher, in his ‘ Genera Plantarum, says, “ Ovula 
e funiculis longis erecta ;” and again, ‘“ Semima plurima, longe 
fihformia, funiculo crassiusculo elongato.” In Sir W. J. Hooker’s 
‘British Flora, the seeds are described as having “a very long 
arillus forming an appendage to each extremity.” The ovules 
have clearly no attaching cord ; the outer membrane, of a lax cel- 
lular texture, is very greatly produced beyond the seeundine and 
nucleus ; the pomt of attachment to the placenta is by the edge 
of the exostome, from which, in consequence of the excessive de- 
velopment of the primine, there is a canal of some length leading 
to the foramen of the secundine and to the nucleus. In only one 
mstance have I seen a distinct funiculus as is represented at 
fig. 4, Plate I., the usual mode of attachment bemg that which 
has now been described and is illustrated by fig. 1. This highly- 
developed primine has been mistaken for an arillus, from which 
however it is very different—at least if we follow the usual ac- 
ceptation of the term. 
While engaged in examiming the ovules of Narthecium shortly 
after the bursting of the anthers, I found numerous transparent 
slender tubes on the surface of the placenta, and on careful ex- 
amination was able to trace them to the mouths of ovules. I 
concluded at first that they were pollen-tubes, and proceeded to 
examine their connexion with the ovules. On dissecting off the 
primine, which is not a very difficult operation owing to its loose 
