JOHN MIERS. 35 





this was followed, ten years later, by his memoir on the family, in 

 which he pointed out its relations to Orchidoe in possessing minute 

 seeds covered by a delicate net-like testa, and borne on°parietal 

 placenta. Another interesting Order he treated of in 1841 when 

 he published his account of Triuris hyalina, afterwards mono- 

 graphing the Order in the Transactions of the Linnean Society in 

 1855. He early investigated the Order Solamtcea. In 1851 he 

 published a general review of the MmUpermacea, and set himself 

 to the collection of materials for an exhaustive monograph of this 

 Order, which was at that time in a state of great confusion. Mauy 

 species and even some genera had been established on single sexes 

 of plants, and in specimens in herbaria it was extremely difficult 

 if not often impossible, to match the sexes of the same species! 

 And as specimens m distant herbaria could not be compared side 

 by side Mr. Miers made upwards of 700 tracings of Meni- 

 spermaceous plants from the principal herbaria in England and on 

 the Continent. These he had bound in four volumes, and resolved 

 to place them with his herbarium in the British Museum. He 

 dissected the flowers and fruit wherever it was possible ; and in the 

 progress of his work he discovered characters in the structure of 

 the seed of the greatest importance in classification. He was able 

 to separate plants that had previously been united, as no appreciable 

 differences had been detected. Mr. Miers began the publication of 

 his complete monograph of the Order in the « Annals and Magazine 

 of Natural History ' in 1864, continuing it at intervals till 1867 

 The whole was reissued as the third volume of his ' Contributions 

 to Botany,' and published in 1871, illustrated with sixty-seven 

 quarto plates lithographed by his own hand. This monograph is 

 perhaps the most important single contribution made to botany by 

 Mr. Miers. In addition to the Natural Orders already mentioned 

 he has revised and monographed the following :—Olacacem (1851) 



Icacinace^ (1852), Canellacea (1858), Wmteracm (1858), Sty race* 

 (1859) ,Lalycerace<B (1860), Bignomaee* (1861), Tecophileace* (1863) 

 Lonantherea (1864), Ehretacea (1869), Hippocrateace* (1870), and 

 Apocynacea (1878). v J 



These represent only a portion of the numerous papers which 

 during his active life he published. Many of his memoirs on 

 genera or single species abound in careful observations and inte- 

 resting speculations. Take, for instance, his investigations into the 

 structure of the seed in Gripidea and other Loasacece, and the 

 structure of the gynecium in Myostoma, especially in relation 

 to the method by which the pollen grains fertilise the ovules in this 

 plant, and the curious speculations and deductions in regard to the 

 abnormal conditions of the access of the pollen influence to the 

 ovule, and to the growth of the seed.* 



f cannot refrain from calling attention to the want of proper feelin-r and 

 the unfairness (which, I regret to say, is not infrequent) of the editor of ' Nature • 

 in adding a paragraph to a communicated ohituary notice of Mr. Miers in which 

 he completely misrepresented the published views of Mr. Mien as to pollen and 

 to his attempts at justification when Dr. Trimen called the attention of the 

 readers of that paper to the error. 



