558 MARSILEACE.E. 



condary capsules to be the female ; his not having been able 

 to ascertain the presence of the yellow sacs, each containing 

 four bodies, figured by Marti us in the contained masses, (his 

 seeds) ; and his stating that the root-like prolongations are 

 confined to their flattened edges, and not, as represented 

 by Martius, scattered over the whole surface. M. Meyen's 

 inner calyptra of the male is the nucleary membrane ? M. 

 Meyen mentions the original nucleus of the capsules con- 

 taining the pedicellate secondaries, as a pestle-shaped body, 

 terminating the column to which they (his partial indusia,) 

 are attached. 



The later descriptions of Sprengel and Endlicher are com- 

 pilations. 



Sprengel* calls the capsules receptacles, and states them 

 to be axillary ! Some of these are described as transversely 

 bilocular, the upper-cell containing triangular bodies attached 

 to a common axis, the under-cell containing a mucus latex 

 or subsequently a powdery mass. The others which are said 

 to be covered by a double membrane ! contain pedicelled 

 globules, each divided into three triangular corpuscles fur- 

 nished with radicles. 



The best part of this curious character appears to be taken 

 from the character in Flinders' Appendix, and as regards the 

 contents of the pedicelled secondary capsules, from figure 17 

 of M. Bauer. 



It is, I think, instructive to observe, that with the excep- 

 tion of the term receptacula, this character presents no ana- 

 logy with those of the other genera with which it is classed : 

 even the similarity of the pedicelled spherical secondary cap- 

 sules with those of Salvinia, the genus immediately preceding 

 it, is not noticed. 



M. Endlicher'sf character is obviously derived from that 

 of Martius ; one difference being his applying the term colu- 



* Gen. PI. 2, p. 716, No. 3604. 

 t Gen. PI. p. 67, No. 688. 



