Botany. 497 
theres 9 M. Fabre has enclosed the antheres and ovules in separate vessels, 
and both have remained without change till decomposition commenced. On 
the contrary, when these bodies were placed in the same vessel, he perceived the 
divisions of the anthers to burst, and the grains of pollen to be carried around 
the nipple of the ovaries ; he saw the ovules detached and fall to the bottom of 
the water ; in short, he saw a little stem implanted in the earth by its extremity 
spring from the nipple, soon after a fine thread has risen from its extremity, (a 
thread which was in reality a cotyledon), and other leaf stalks have successively 
spread, terminated by two, three, and even four leaflets. 
The conclusion which M. Dunal has thus arrived at, after comparing these 
curious facts, with what had been previously written regarding the Marsiliaceae 
is, that they should be removed from the Class Cryptogamia and placed among 
the Phanerogamous plants L'Inst. Wth Nov. 1836. 
Pilularia globulifera The general description of the involucre of Pilularia, 
and the very different seed-like bodies therein contained, is familiar to most 
botanists, and is for the most part correctly given by modern writers ; but the 
nature and functions of those bodies have been frequently the subject of con- 
tradictory statement, some authors attributing to the smaller, the office of sta- 
mens, and to the larger, that of pistils, whilst others have denied both, and, 
to avoid a difficulty, have imagined that the smaller are abortive seeds. 
The well-marked distinction in structure, size, shape, and situation, within 
the involucre, in all stages of growth of these bodies, and the smaller or 
granules not being observed in many experiments to make the least effort at 
germination, are grounds sufficient to justify the conclusion that they are not 
abortive seeds, but that they perform some peculiar office, and the probability 
of that office being analogous to that of anthers in Phaenogamous plants. The 
result, too, of Mr Dickie's experiments* shewing the presence of starch and a 
fluid resembling a fixed oil its properties in the true seeds, or " thecae," as they 
have been called, (which is evidently an improper term since each " theca" is one 
entire seed, having one germen, and producing but one plant) is a valuable ad- 
dition to the distinguishing characters of these bodies. To ascertain the man- 
ner of germination, some seeds of Pilularia were placed in water in watch- 
glasses seeds by themselves, and seeds with granules in separate glasses and 
in a few days the seeds in both vessels were swollen about the apex,f which 
became of a blackish -brown colour, and a green point soon presented itself 
through the apex in a line vertical to the axis of the seed, and became a leaf, 
which having attained about half an inch in length, a white radicle appeared in 
a directly opposite line. When the root had attained rather more than half an 
inch in length, the young plants withered and died, probably from exposure to too 
much light, and being deprived of other advantages which soil would afford. Ac- 
cordingly, a glass dish was nearly filled with mud and water, and covered with a 
bell glass to prevent evaporation. A considerable number of seeds were placed 
on the mud, and some buried a little below the surface ; germination commenced 
in a few days; but in this experiment the first leaf proceeded at right angles to the 
* See No. IV. of this Magazine. 
| The upper part of the figure in Mr Dickie's paper represents the apex. 
