302 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [anNO 1787. 



certain determined number of ova, capable of receiving male impregnation, are 

 originally formed in each ovarium ; and vi^hich number, when exhausted, the 

 female constitution has no power to renew ; if this be the true account of the 

 economy of nature in this particular, which has every appearance of probability, 

 those numerous births must occasion a very fruitless profusion and waste of the 

 human race, and become every way detrimental to its increase. From the 

 united testimony of all the foregoing cases, it is undeniably clear, that the 

 females of the human species, though most commonly uniparous, are, in cer- 

 tain circumstances to us unknown, every now and then capable of very far ex- 

 ceeding their usual number ; and I must again repeat, that it does not appear 

 that we can set any bounds to the pov/ers of nature in that respect ; or pretend, 

 as some have done, with certainty to say, what may be the utmost limits of 

 human fertility. 



XXXV, ChloranthuSi a New Genus of Plants ^ described by Olof SivartZy 



M. D. p. 359. 



Among the numberless vegetable productions that have appeared in the Royal 

 Garden at Kew, is the present. It is already long since this curious plant has 

 been introduced there as a native of China, where, we are told, the same is 

 cultivated in the Chinese gardens, though it seems not to have any qualities 

 either palatable or odoriferous nor a beautiful appearance. At the first sight of 

 the plant, there is some likeness of viscum or loranthus ; and considering the in- 

 florescentia, and the insertion of the antherae,, we find no less analogy ; though 

 on a nearer examination it is greatly different, and of a very intricate construc- 

 tion. The pains I have taken to enucleate the family relation of this hitherto 

 unknown vegetable, have induced me, for the sake of its singularity, to pre- 

 sent it as a new genus, of which I think the following natural character may be 

 the most proper : 



Calyx none j but there is an ovate, concave, pointed scale, on which tlie germen is seated. 



Corol. Monopetalous, dimidiated, or a single petal, roundish, three-lobed, convex, inserted into 

 the outside of the germen, staminiferous, deciduous. The exterior lobe is larger than the others. 



Stamens. Filaments none. Anthers four, longitudinally growing to the margins of the petal, 

 bivalve. 



Pistil. Germ oblong, or difForm obovate, nearly covered by the scale, projecting in front, 

 petaligerous. Style oblique, tliick, very short, cornered. Stigmas three, very small, upright. 



Pericarp. Berry oblong, single-seeded. 



Seed oblong. 



Essential Character.- — Calyx none. 



Corol. Petal trilobate, seated on the side of the germen. Anthers growing to the petal. 



Berry single-seeded. 



I have not been able to find any description or figure answering to this plant 



