Linnaan Society. \5\ 



matter of detail is scarcely susceptible of analysis, but some of the 

 incidental observations connected with it may properly be noticed 

 here. Mr. Clarke states that in Scleranthus annuus the funiculus is 

 uniformly posterior to the seed and on the same side with the coty- 

 ledons, in which character that plant differs from Chenopodece and 

 Amaranthacece, and as far as he has been able to ascertain from Ille- 

 cebrece, in which the funiculus is either anterior or lateral, and the 

 cotyledons (in pendulous seeds) on the opposite side of the seed or 

 less frequently lateral. Of thirty-two ovaries of Circcea alpina, thirteen 

 had two cells with an ovule in each, but the posterior cell constantly 

 smaller than the anterior, in twelve the posterior cell was empty, 

 and in seven entirely absent ; and this analogy with some particu- 

 larities in structure led him to regard the single cell of Hippuris as 

 most probably resulting from a single anterior carpellum. He shows 

 by a series of diagrams that the position of the fertile cell in Valeri- 

 anecE is always lateral and external ; and observes that in the genera 

 with an irregular corolla it always bears the same relation to the 

 irregularity of the flower. He infers from an inferiority of develop- 

 ment of the posterior carpellum in Stylidium graminifolium, that if 

 the ovarj' in that genus were reduced to a single carpellum, that 

 carpellum would be anterior ; a case which he has since found to 

 occur in St. adnatum, in which there is a single anterior carpellum, 

 or if two carpella are present the anterior only is fertile, the ovula 

 being always attached to the posterior angle of the cell. He de- 

 scribes the carpellum oilsopogon and Leucospermum among Proteacece 

 as anterior ; and notes that in Grevillea the carpellum always alter- 

 nates with the two larger sepala, but varies most extensively with 

 reference to what he considers the axis. In Anadenia he states that 

 the carpellum is always anterior in the lower half of the raceme, 

 but varies in position towards the summit, and in rare instances is 

 perhaps even posterior. In some species of Acacia also he believes 

 that he has found instances of posterior carpella, but as the flowers 

 were for the most part in threes, these carpella might belong to the 

 lateral flowers. In Pedicularis palustris he has always found the 

 anterior carpellum and the anterior division of the style larger than 

 the posterior ; and the same is the case with Mendozia, resulting in 

 the latter instance in the suppression of the posterior carpellum in 

 the fruit. He gives at length his reasons for regarding the carpellum 

 as anterior in Casuarina, Cannabis, Humulus, Parietaria, Urtica, Ela- 

 tostemma and Celt is; and he concludes his remarks on the Protero- 

 carpous division by some observations on Cuphea and Lythrum ; on 

 Magallana ; and on Fumaria. 



Under the head of the Heterocarpous division he begins by recur- 

 ring to the relations already mentioned as existing between Cerato- 

 phyllum, PiperacecB, Houttvynia and Chloranthus. He then proceeds 

 to notice Gentianece, among which he states that the dichotomous 

 Erythraa linarifolia is an example of the two carpella being anterior 

 and posterior, and infers from thence and from other variations, 

 taken in connexion with the general statement that in this family 

 the carpella are right and left, that their position (as in Apocynece 



