Botany and Zoology. 285 



^■ible remote derivation from Coni/erm being indicated thereby, it may be 

 interesting to note that Mr. Brown, in the 19th vokirne of the Linnjean 

 Transactions (p. 231) draws from analogous facts an opposite conchision, 

 viz.: "That conformity in vascular structure, even when accompanied by 

 peculiarity of tissue, does not always indicate, much less determine, bo- 

 tanical affinity." Which is considerably safer than the genealogical view 

 hinted at by Prof. Oliver, As the wood of ffamamelidece has the usual 

 proportion of vessels, Ac, Prof. Oliver intimates, as well he may, that it 

 offers "a higher measure of specialization" than that of Coniferae, even 

 although the latter has been "designated by a distinguished naturalist as 

 the highest specialized tissue known." Interesting remarks are given upon 

 the geographical distribution of this order. a. o. 



3. Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnoean Soeiety, Botany. Nos. 22, 

 23. — Having already drawn upon articles contained in these numbers, 

 we need only enumerate the contents, viz.: 



Col. Munro's Identif,cation of the Grasses of Linnmus's Herbarium is 

 concluded. 



j Mr. Bentham contributes Notes on Caryophyllece, Portulace(B and some 



<illied Orders ; also Hfotes on Malvacece and Sterculiacece. Tlie results 

 of these papers find their place in the new Genera Plantarura of Ben- 

 tham and Hooker, the first part of which is nearly all printed. 



j On the Two Forms or Dimorphic Condition in the Species of Primula, 



«nrf on their remarkable Sexual Relations; by Charles Darwin.— The 

 two forms are identical with those of ifoustonia, and the like, long ago 

 '■ecognized by our botanists ; and those of Primula have perhaps been 



of the same hermaphrodite species,— an object effectually reached in ti&- 

 *»fe in many different ways, most commonly through the agency of in- 

 ^^ts; and here is one of the adaptations to this end. The details wa 



'*y P^maps explain upon 



^est African Tropical ^x.,-.^-', -^j ^-^ .- ^ . ,^ 



Notes on Contoubea volubilis. Mart, and some other Gentiana of Trop- 

 ^ America, by Dr. Grisebach. The plant in question is a homely, 

 nall-flowered, voluble plant of C. Wright's Cuban collection, ^o. 13^2, 

 * which, the name now beinff vacant, Dr. Grisebach has transferred that 



aarb of Erythr<Ea and four other related genera, that they are mer€ 

 *rtjficial distinctions He might have added Oyrandra to the list, 

 Another very interesting and striking plant of Wright's collection, No. 

 *3*6, is the type of a new ffenus, namely, Zonanthus Culfensis. _ 



... 0» /„oc»i'',, by Mr. B^nAao,, the Pr«ide„. o! .he Society Cur,. 



known Bocoa of Aublet. 



