533 
of Edinburgh, Session 1868 - 69 . 
The author is inclined to set aside the ordinary idea of a close 
affinity with Scrophulariacese. If the supposed correspondence in 
the number of carpels has no reality, the orders have actually 
nothing in common save bilabiation and didynamy; but these 
characters are found in so many different types that they are of 
very small value in determining the affinities of a given plant. 
On the other hand, he showed that Lentibulariacese, in having a 
free-central placenta and (probably) five carpels, differ little from 
Primulacese except in the superposition of the stamens to the 
sepals, and the exalbuminous character of the seed. 
The author thought that Salvadoracese should be placed near 
Lentibulariacese, as had been done by Payer in his “ Le£ons sur 
les fam. nat. des plantes,” and suggested that Salvadora, with 
oppositisepalous stamens and solitary exalbuminous seed, bears 
the same relation to Lentibulariacese with numerous exalbuminous 
seeds, as Plumbaginacese with oppositipetalous stamens and soli- 
tary albuminous seed, bears to Primulacese with numerous albu- 
minous seeds : Salvadoracese with Lentibulariacese, on the one 
hand, and Plumbaginacese with Primulacese on the other, forming 
two parallel, nearly allied series. 
The author also drew attention to the embryos of Pinguiculci 
vulgaris , P. grandiflora , P. lusitanica, and Utricularia minor. A 
very brief statement by him of the differences between those 
of the two first had already appeared in the report of a meet- 
ing of the Dublin Microscopical Club, on 21st November 1867 
(Microscopical Journal, viii. pp. 121-2); but a more detailed 
account was now submitted along with figures. He was able to 
confirm St. Hilaire’s statement as to the dicotyledony of P. lusi- 
tanica , which, when contrasted with the monocotyledony in the 
two first named species of the genus, is very remarkable ; and in a 
Mexican species, P. caudata, the author has also found two cotyle- 
dons. In Utricularia minor the embryo is somewhat globular, and at 
first sight appears to have a smooth undivided surface ; on careful 
inspection, however, a remarkable conformation is to be observed of 
that end of the embryo which is remote from the hilum of the 
seed, viz., a minute punctum vegetationis surrounded by four very 
slight elevations forming the somewhat incurved sides of a square. 
He was not prepared to call these four elevations cotyledons , but 
