; Scientific Intelligence. 435 
resent memoir was published in the spring of the present 
and has been duly noticed in the Pee scientific journals. It 
d 
Géclauatally happened that the copies addressed by the author to his 
correspondents in the United States shy ae recently receive ou 
late, some notice = the plant and of Dr. Hooker’s i investigations will 
oes be welcome, no doubt, spodallg, to many readers who may never 
ee the memoir itse Tf 
= good idea of the vegetable oe in question is given in the fol- 
lowing brief account of its appearance and prominent characters, drawn 
partly. from the deserpton of its discdverah and partly from specimens 
sent to Englan 
“The Welwitschia i is a woody plant, said to attain a century in duration, with 
an obconic trunk about two feet long, of which a few inches rise above the 
the soil, presenting the appearance of a flat, wots bed, depressed mass, some- 
cracked over the whole surface hase 1 ke the on ctust of a loaf of beads 
the lower portion forms a stout tap-root, buried in the soil, and branching 
downward at the end. From deep grooves in the circumference of the de- 
pressed mass pee enormous leaves are eg n off, each six fee eke when full- 
. n, rrespo none to each lobe; these are quite- Hes . line ear, very 
eathery. nid are split to the base into ‘Sihiokisrbie thongs that lie curling 
upon the surface of the soil. Its discoverer a iets same two leaves 
as being present from the earliest condition of the plant, and assures me that 
in fact developed from the two eotytedone ne ‘th 1e seed, and are per- 
sistent, prea replaced by no others. From the circumference bs rt tabula 
mass, above, but close to the insertion of. the iabie $, Spring stout, dichoto- 
mously Seanchan cymes, nearly a foot high, bearing small erect acader's cones, 
which eventually become oblong, and attain the size of those of the common 
spruce fir. tds at scales of the cones are very — oo poiPinine and conti 
when youn still very small, solitary flowers, which in some cones are 
hermaphrodite | (rcracaal y but not faitoonny), bi in others pili von her- 
ite flower consists of a perianth of four pieces, six mo 
ith gl i 
Stamens, with b trilocular anthers, surround a ce » the 
integument of which is produced into a styliform sigmoid tube, terminated by 
discoid he female flower consists itary erect ovule, con- 
tained in a compressed utricular perianth. The mature cone is tetragonous, 
and elias a broadly winged fruit in each scale. Its discoverer observes 
Ww me o' mbor ; 
this he withdre my suggestion, for shire which [I shall presently give, 
It inhabits the site ster sandy plateau near Cape Negro (lat. 15° 40’ S.) on the 
8s. Africa.” 
Welwitschia mirabilis, Hook. fil. was also detected and made known— 
as of the memo’ ars as if Gito-loared; but probably one of the 
two ie aval aver is split into two, the other into three segments. As 
might be inferred from the form and structure, pa Welwitschia inhabits 
a dry eaten Mr. Monteiro writes to 
* — about thirty miles. distant from the ciheiaes I ans a ane about three 
Am. Jour. Sc1.—Seconp Sexies, Vou. XXXVI, No. 108.—Noy. 
56 
