Lirmaan Society. 31 



of the leaf of Chamcerops humilis is found under a pellicle clothed 

 with hairs, which is torn at the junction of the petiole by the 

 gi'owth of the limb ; and it is the base of the pellicle which gives 

 rise to the organ which has been called the ligula of the flabel- 

 liform leaves of certain palms, and to the cicatrix which is ob- 

 served round the extremity of the petiole. 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



LINN^AN SOCIETY. 



June 1, 1852. — R. Brown, Esq., President, in the Chair. 



Read a memoir " On Acradenia, a new genus of Diosmece." By 

 Richard Kippist, Esq., Libr. L.S. 



The new genus described was one of a highly interesting collection 

 formed in the neighbourhood of Afacquarrie Harbour, \^an Diemen's 

 Land, by Mr. Joseph Milligan, and by him, through the late lamented 

 Mr. Bicheno, presented to the Society. It belongs to the natural 

 order Diosmece, tribe Boroniece, and in habit most nearly approaches 

 Zieria, to the larger-leaved species of which it bears at first sight 

 considerable resemblance. From this genus, however, as well as 

 from Melicope, Boronia, and Cyanothamnus, from Eriostemon, Crowea, 

 and Philotheca, and from Geleznowia, Turcz., it differs in various 

 characters which are more particularly indicated ; and it is distin- 

 guished from them all by the structure of its ovaries, which adhere 

 closely together and are everywhere clothed with a dense tomentose 

 covering ; except that each bears, at its upper external angle, a 

 naked sessile tubercle or gland, large enough to be readily observed 

 with the naked eye, a character which Mr. Kippist has been unable 

 to discover in any closely aUied genus, and which has suggested the 

 generic name. He is unable to speak positively as to the precise 

 nature of these glandular bodies, or to say whether any exudation 

 proceeds from them : when examined under the microscope they 

 appear to be perforated by a tube, widening below, and communi- 

 cating with the internal cavity of the carpel ; and from their exact 

 correspondence in position, they are probably analogous to the cor- 

 nute appendages which crown the ovaries of some species of Pheba- 

 lium, in which genus they are occasionally developed into subulate 

 or nearly cylindrical horns. 



Acradenia, Kipp. 



Calyx 5-partitus. Petala 5, hypogyna, calyce multo longiora, sestivatione 

 iinbricata, ovato-elliptica, undique velutina. Stamina 10, bypogyna, 

 petalis sublongiora, alterna pauUo breviora ; filamenta libera, subiilata, 

 glabra ; antherce introrsse, glabrse, biloculares, rinia longitudinali de- 

 liisceutes, apice inappendiculat£E. Ovaria 5, gynophoro disciformi 

 margine sinuatoinsidentia, 1-locularia, villosissinia; singula apice glan- 

 dul(i majusculi sessili instructa. Ovula in loculis gemina, suturie 

 ventrali collateraliter inserta, pendula. Slylim uiiicum glabrum coaliti. 



