422 Miscellaneous. 



therefore be regarded as abortive receptacles. In the elon- 

 gated receptacle, straight spiral vessels are met with. A 

 spiral vessel never extends to the fruit. The parts which 

 Sprengel years ago, Blume and Presl at present consider to 

 be male organs of fructification and indistinctly figured, have 

 been more accurately examined by Prof. Link, and illustrated 

 by drawings. They are long hollow filaments, separated by 

 septa into articulations, generally simple, rarely ramified ; the 

 last articulation is thicker, and filled with a delicate granular 

 mass. It may also at times be observed that this mass is 

 exuded at the last articulation, and surrounds this as a crust. 

 These parts are frequently longer than the capsules, and are 

 easily distinguished from the young capsules. It is certainly 

 probable that they are the stamina of ferns, and Prof. Link 

 has indeed found them, after frequent search, in most of the 

 ferns which he subjected to microscopical examination. The 

 germination of ferns is simple ; the shell of the seed bursts re- 

 gularly or irregularly, out of which the embryo grows forth 

 in a foliaceous expansion, which subsequently first forms a 

 bud, whence the plant proceeds in the form which it retains. 

 This mode of germination presents, therefore, a similarity to 

 that of monocotyledons, only that here the evolution of the 

 embryo is a state, and one of rapid transition. 



POTAMOGETON PliJF.LONGUS. 



This rare plant occurs plentifully in the river Waveney, which 

 divides Norfolk from Suffolk, in the neighbourhood of Harleston and 

 Bungay, where I gathered it in June last. The only other station, 

 to the south of the Tweed, is in ditches near Caversham Bridge near 

 Reading, where it was found by Mr. Borrer in May 1836. — Charles 

 C. Babington, 



THE COCOS DE MER. 



The singular plant known bj' the above title was for many years a 

 source of inquiry, and gave rise to some most absurd and monstrous 

 conjectures. Its gigantic fruit was occasionally picked up floating 

 at sea, and sometimes carried by the currents to various shores of 

 the Indian ocean. Astonishing virtues were attributed to it, and 

 were supposed to be communicated to medicines drunk out of its 



