EAFFLESIA AUNOLDI, ETC. 423 



[211 



I have also to state, that an extensive and highlyimport ..- 

 ant essay, entitled, "An Attempt to analyse BMzanthece," by 

 Mr. WiUiam GritSth, has been read during the present 

 season before the Linnean Society, of Avhich an abstract is 

 given in the Proceedings. From this essay I have here in- 

 troduced the character of Sapria, a new genus belonging 

 to BqfflesiacecB ; and have ventured to propose an alteration 

 of the trivial name from Himalayana to Grifithii, in 

 honour of the discoverer of this interesting addition to the 

 tribe Jlafflesiece, whose species, with one exception, have 

 names similarly derived. 



RAFFLESIACEiE, ; 



Char. Diff. Obd. Perianthium monophyllum regulare. 



Corolla nulla. 



Stamina : Antherse numerosse, simplici serie. 



Ovarium : placentis pluribus polyspermis, ovulis ortho- 

 tropis (sed in quibusdam recurvatione apicis, penitus vel 

 partim, liberi funiculi quasi anatropis). 



Pericardium indehiscens polyspermum. 



Embryo indivisus (cum v. absque albumine). 



Parasiticse radicihus rariusve in ramis plantarum dicotyle- 

 donearum. 



stages of development, and which he extends to Phsenogamoas plants generally, 

 in some respects different from that laken by M. Mirbel, who considers the 

 nuch'us of the ovulum, in its earliest state, as inclosed in its coats, which 

 gradually open until they have attained their maximum of expansion, when 

 they again contract around tlie nucleus, and, at tlie same time, by elongating, 

 completely inclose it. Mr. Brown, on the other hand, regards the earliest stage 

 of the nucleus as merely a contraction taking place in the apex of a pre-existing 

 papilla, whose surface, as well as substance, is originally uniform, and that its 

 coats are of subsequent formation, each coat consisting, at first, merely of an 

 annular thickening at the base of the nucleus, which, by gradual elongation, it 

 entirely covers before impregnation takes place. 



" But this mode of development of the ovulum, he remarks, though very 

 general, is not without exception ; for in many, perhaps in ail, Asctepiadece 

 and Jpocinea, the ovulum continues a uniform cellular tissue, exhibiting no 

 distinction of parts until after the application of the pollen tube to a definite 

 part of its surface, when an internal separation or included nucleus first 

 becomes visible." — See a translation of this abstract in Amial, des Sc. Nai 

 ser. 2de, torn, i, p. 369. 



