Botany and Zoology. 



135 



# " The famous Dragon-tree of Villa de Orotava, so well known through 

 Humboldt's description," Mr. Bunbury informs us, " is still in existence ; 

 a ruin indeed, but a noble ruin. Its foliage is still fresh and vigorous; 

 but the tree has been much shattered, and has lost many branches within 

 the last few years ; and a gentleman who has long known it is of opinion 

 that it will not last another century. By my measurement, the part that 

 remains entire of the trunk is 30 feet round, that is, from edge to edge of 

 the hollow, and the width across the hollow is 12 feet. This measure- 

 ment was taken at 8-J- feet above the roots." 



On some new species of Chamcelanciece ; by Dr. C. F. Meisner. — 

 This curious and most elegant group of Australian Myrtaceous plants, of 

 which only 10 species were known to De Candolle in 1828, and distribu- 

 ted in five genera, is here brought up to 121 species, comprised in eleven 

 genera. And two more species are added in the next paper, viz : 



Notice of two apparently undescribed species of Genetyllis ; by R. 

 Kippist, with the first paragraph of which article the number closes. 

 The second number, we learn, will contain a revision of Loganiacece by 

 Mr. Bentham. 



The Zoological portion of the first number contains — 

 (1.) On the Katepo, a supposed poisonous spider of New Zealand ; by 

 Thos. Sherman Ralph. 



(2.) Remarks on some habits of Argyroneta aquatica ; by Thomas 

 Bell, Prest. L. S. 



(3.) Catalogue of Dipterous Insects of Singapore and Malacca, by 

 A. R. Wallace, with descriptions of new species, by Francis Walker. 



4. ) Note on a supposed new species of Pelopseus ; by Edward Newman. 



5. ) On the Natural History of the Glow-worm ; by the late Geo. 

 Newport. a. g. 



2. Origin of the Embryo in Plants. — Considerable progress has been 

 made towards the settlement of the mooted points in embryogeny since 

 this subject has been noticed in this Journal. The Schleidenian view 

 was generally supposed to have been as nearly as possible disproved ; 

 when, about a year and a half ago, Schacht made a remarkable commu- 

 nication to the meeting of naturalists assembled at Berlin, which was 

 afterwards published in the Regensberg Flora, and a French version of 

 it was given in the Annates des Sciences JVaturelles, vol. 3 of 4th ser., 

 1855. Remarking that the theory which maintains that the embryo 

 originates within the apex of the pollen-tube inserted into the nucleus of 

 the ovule, had then scarcely any partisan besides himself, he states that a 

 preparation had been made by a young naturalist, M. Deecke, of such a 

 nature as to silence forever the adversaries of that view ! — a preparation 

 in which a pollen-tube, detached from the young ovule of Pedicularis 

 sylvatica, showed that it had produced in its extremity a cell which was 

 nothing else than the first cell of the embryo, thus " putting an end to 

 all discussion" on this hitherto controverted topic. Deecke had already 

 published a figure of his preparation in the Memoirs of the Natural 

 History Society of Halle, with a short account of it. Schacht, with his 

 leave, now published another figure, which he pronounced to be "rigor- 

 ously exact." This figure is reproduced in the Ann. Sci. JVat., above 

 cited, along with others illustrating Schacht's article ; the whole of which 



