13*2 Linncean Society. 



Cibotium, with which it agrees in the venation of its frond, the dis- 

 position of its sori, and in the structure and texture of its indusium. 



March 17. — Mr. Forster, V.P., in the Chair. 



Addresses of congratulation to Her Majesty and to His Royal 

 Highness Prince Albert of Saxe Coburg and Gotha, on occasion of 

 Her Majesty's marriage, were read from the Chair, and unanimously 

 adopted by the Meeting. 



Read " On some new Brazilian Plants allied to the Natural 

 Order Burmanniacea." By John Miers, Esq., F.L.S. 



Of the thirteen recorded species of Burmannia five are natives of 

 Brazil, where they were found by Von Martins, who has not only 

 accurately described them, but has given an able detail of the genus. 

 The author, previous to his departure from Brazil, discovered five 

 new plants, evidently allied to Burmannia, but which differ in many 

 essential characters : from these he has established three new ge- 

 nera, Dictyostega, Cymhocarpa, and Stemoptera : they possess the 

 habit oi Burmannia in their thickened rhizoma with branching fibres, 

 an erect stem, almost naked, or furnished with a few distant bracti- 

 form leaves and terminal flowers, with a tubular petaloid perian- 

 thium, having a six-partite border, composed of three sepals and three 

 petals ; stamens three, almost sessile, in the mouth of the tube be- 

 low the petals ; anthers with the cells disjoined and opening trans- 

 versely ; a simple style ; three stigmata and a capsule surmounted by 

 the withered perianth bursting irregularly ; seeds minute, resembling 

 those of Orchidea ; but the most important diflference consists in their 

 having unilocular capsules, with three parietal placentae, while Bur- 

 mannia has always a trilocular capsule, with central placentation, 

 an essential difference, which entitles them to be considered, if not 

 as forming a new natural order, at least as constituting a distinct 

 sub-family. Allied to these are to be arranged three other plants, 

 already recorded, the Apteria setacea of Nuttall, a native of North 

 America, and Gonyanthes Candida and Gymnosiphon aphyllum of 

 Blume, by whom they were found in Java. The author considers 

 his genus Dictyostega as coming very near Apteria, which, however, 

 from the drawing and description of Mr. Nuttall, would seem to re- 

 semble Stemoptera still more closely in its habit, its seeds, and its 

 large single flowers ; but it does not appear to possess the very 

 remarkable stamens of the latter genus, nor the habit or singular 

 seeds of Dictyostega. He gives a full description of the charac- 

 ters of his new genera and species, adding at the same time the 

 character of Apteria and of Dr. Blume's two genera, so as to collect 



