Botany. 497 



theres ? M. Fabre has enclosed the antheres and ovules in separate vessels, 

 and both have remained without change till decomposition commenced. On 

 the contrary, when these bodies were placed in the same vessel, he perceived the 

 divisions of the anthers to burst, and the grains of pollen to be carried around 

 the nipple of the ovaries ; he saw the ovules detached and fall to the bottom of 

 the water ; in short, he saw a little stem implanted in the earth by its extremity 

 spring from the nipple, soon after a fine thread has risen from its extremity, (a 

 thread which was in reality a cotyledon), and other leaf stalks have successively 

 spread, terminated by two, three, and even four leaflets. 



The conclusion which M. Dunal has thus arrived at, after comparing these 

 curious facts, with what had been previously written regarding the Marsiliaceae 

 is, that they should be removed from the Class Cryptogamia and placed among 

 the Phanerogamous plants L'Inst. \6th Nov. 1836. 



Pilularia globulifera — The general description of the involucre of Pilularia, 

 and the very different seed-like bodies therein contained, is familiar to most 

 botanists, and is for the most part correctly given by modern writers ; but the 

 nature and functions of those bodies have been frequently the subject of con- 

 tradictory statement, some authors attributing to the smaller, the office of sta-_ 

 mens, and to the larger, that of pistils, whilst others have denied both, and, 

 to avoid a difficulty, have imagined that the smaller are abortive seeds. 



The well-marked distinction in structure, size, shape, and situation, within 

 the involucre, in all stages of growth of these bodies, and the smaller or 

 granules not being observed in many experiments to make the least effort at 

 germination, are grounds sufficient to justify the conclusion that they are not 

 abortive seeds, but that they perform some peculiar office, and the probability 

 of that office being analogous to that of anthers in Phaenogamous plants. The 

 result, too, of Mr Dickie's experiments" shewing the presence of starch and a 

 fluid resembling a fixed oil its properties in the true seeds, or " theca;," as they 

 have been called, (which is evidently an improper term since each " theca" is one 

 entire seed, having one germen, and producing but one plant) is a valuable ad- 

 dition to the distinguishing characters of these bodies. To ascertain the man- 

 ner of germination, some seeds of Pilularia were placed in water in watch- 

 glasses — seeds by themselves, and seeds with granules in separate glasses — and 

 in a few days the seeds in both vessels were swollen about the apex,f which 

 became of a blackish-brown colour, and a green point soon presented itself 

 through the apex in a line vertical to the axis of the seed, and became a leaf, 

 which having attained about half an inch in length, a white radicle appeared in 

 a directly opposite line. When the root had attained rather more than half an 

 inch in length, the young plants withered and died, probably from exposure to too 

 much light, and being deprived of other advantages which soil would afford. Ac- 

 cordingly, a glass dish was nearly filled with mud and water, and covered with a 

 bell glass to prevent evaporation. A considerable number of seeds were placed 

 on the mud, and some buried a little below the surface ; germination commenced 

 in a few days ; but inthis experiment the first leaf proceeded at right angles to the 



* See No. IV. of this Magazine. 



| The upper part of the figure in Mr Dickie's paper represents the apex. 



