286 Linnaan Society. 



become pretty numerous. The Swift (Hirundo Apus) came on the 

 7th of May, in less numbers than usual. Dr. Forster had not yet (on 

 the 21st of May) seen the Sand-Martin (^Hirundo riparia), which is 

 usually found in April ; and even of the Martin (^Hirundo urbica), 

 usually plentiful at Bruges in the first week of May, the most care- 

 ful search had not enabled him to detect a single bird. The Night- 

 ingale and Black-cap came to their time, but the Grey Wag-tail 

 was not seen until the day of the date of the letter. The remarkable 

 scarcity of flying insects, the usual food of the swallows, caused them 

 to seek for other species, and a naturalist of the neighbourhood had 

 assured Dr. Forster that he saw them hunting for their prey on 

 walls and trunks of trees, like the Creeper, a fact which Dr. Forster 

 considers as tending to support his opinion of the reasoning powers 

 of animals. Up to this time the Cockchafer (^MeloJontha vulgaris), 

 although usually abundant, had not made its appearance ; nor had 

 another constant inhabitant of the gardens, Buprestis nitens, yet been 

 seen. The large black Cockroach had increased to an alarming 

 extent in many of the old houses and on the premises of the bakers. 

 Some foreign newspapers had erroneously spoken of the weather as 

 fine in Belgium, but there had been only three tolerably fine days 

 since the 21st of March, and the average temperature since the 25th 

 of that month had been 8° Fahr. below the mean. 



Read also, a Memoir " On the position of the Raphe in Anatropal 

 Ovules." By Benjamin Clarke, Esq., F.L.S. &c. 



Mr. Clarke believes that this character, which has hitherto at- 

 tracted but partial attention, is a character of much constancy in the 

 several families, and therefore deserving a more complete examina- 

 tion He states the most usual position of the raphe, when each of 

 the carpellary margins bears a single row of anatropal ovules, as in 

 Paonia, to be lateral and turned towards the raj)he of the ovules of 

 the opposite row ; and the curvature of the ovule has the same di- 

 rection even in cases where the ovule is not anatropal, as in Colutea 

 arborescens. The position of raphe with reference to placenta is less 

 regular where the ovules are more numerous, but in some cases, as 

 in Gomphocarpus, it is observed to be always next the placenta, 

 the ovules being pendulous with long funiculi ; and in Cuphea and 

 Reaumuria also next the placenta with the ovules erect. 



It is, however, when the anatropal ovule is single that Mr. Clarke 

 believes the position of the raphe affords the most important cha- 

 racters, and he proceeds to consider the various relations which it 

 bears to the placenta under six different heads, as follows : — 



1. Ovule pendulous ; raphe turned away from the placenta. 



2. Ovule pendulous ; raphe lateral. 



3. Ovule jjendulous ; raphe next the placenta. 



4. Ovule erect; raphe turned away from the placenta. 



5. Ovule erect; raphe lateral. 



6. Ovule erect ; raphe next the placenta. 



1. The pendulous ovule, with the raphe turned away from the pla- 

 centa, was first observed by Mr. Brown, and afterwards figured and 



