PROCEEDINGS 



THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY. 



1846-7. No. 64. 



April 12th, 1847. 



REV. HUMPHREY LLOYD, D. D., President, in the 

 Chair. 



Abraham Whyte Baker, Esq. ; James W. M. Berry, Esq. ; 

 Richard V. Boyle, Esq. ; Sir Thomas Esmonde, Bart. ; Na- 

 thaniel Hone, Esq. ; and Philip Jones, Esq. ; were elected 

 Members of the Academy. 



Dr. AUman made a communication on the Structure of 

 the Fruit and Mechanism of Dehiscence in some of the Hepa- 

 ticcB, and on the probable Origin of the Organs known by the 

 name of Elaters in these Plants. 



In this paper the author demonstrated the existence, in the 

 sporangia of Jungermannia, Marchantia, and Fegatella, of 

 spiral cells similar to those found in the lining membrane of 

 the anthers of flowering plants. The sporangium of these 

 genera is composed of a single layer of such cells immediately 

 enclosing the spores and elaters. The author described the 

 circumstances which he had observed to attend the phenome- 

 non of dehiscence in Fegatella conica. In this plant the pe- 

 duncle of the sporangium is connected with the fundus of the 



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