BOTANICAL SUBJECTS. 315 



female conceptacles. No one can glance at the enlarged section 

 of this conceptacle as shown in Thuret's work, and not see in 

 it a fig. 



If it may be difficult to convince the reader that the oil-glands 

 of the Citrus are atrophied remnants of seaweed conceptacles, it 

 ought not to be so difficult to convince him that the fig is a modi- 

 fied conceptacle, such as that shown in Fig. 129 (a) of Mi/riodes?na, 

 especially if he take the trouble to examine and cogitate over the 

 impressions left by the study of Thuret's " Etudes Phycolo- 

 giques," Harvey's " Phycologia Brittanica," and " Ph. Australica," 

 the works of Esper, Stackhouse, Berkeley, and others. 



At all events, if he considers the Cycad a modified fern he 

 ought not to find it difficult to see a fig in a conceptacle, and 

 that there may be something in all I have said. 



