440 
MR. GRIFFITH’S VALUABLE PAPER, 
Art. VI. — On the family of Rhizophorece, 
By Wm. Griffith, Esq., Madras 
Medical Service, 
Account of the Fin of the Balista. By 
J. W. Knight, Esq. 
Meteorological Register kept on board the 
Experiment Steam Flat, during a voyage 
from Calcutta to Allahabad. By J. 
W. Knight, Esq. 
From Assistant Surgeon Spry, Offg. 
Medical Storekeeper, to J. Swine y. 
Esq., regarding the manufacture of 
Glauber’s salts. — Transactions Medi- 
cal and Physical Society, Calcutta, 
1836. 
The first and second of these papers will 
be read with great interest by most of our 
readers. We lament documents of thisnature 
should have been so long withheld from the 
public. The other articles are also of con- 
sequence, one showing the temperature 
whilst travelling in a steamer during the 
hottest months of the year ; and the other 
on the manufacture of Glauber’s salt. 
ON THE FAMILY OF RH IZOPHORE^. 
“ The first peculiarity I shall mention relates 
to the anthers, and appears to have been first 
noticed by Jacquin, in ids Hisioria Selectaruin 
Stirpium Americanaium, p. 142, and subse- 
quently by the illustrious Dr. Brown, who 
adverts to it in his matchless account of 
Rafflesia, (Linn. Trans, vol. l3, part 1, 
p. 214) in these words: “ In oilier cases, a 
separation of determinate poi lions of the 
membrane takes place, either the whole length 
of the theca, asin Hamamelideae and Berbeii- 
deae ; or corresponding with its subdivisions, 
as in several Laurinse; or lastly, having no 
obvious relation to internal structure, as in 
certain species of Rhizophora.” 1 was ac- 
quainted with this structure for the first time 
about three months ago ; and was then totally 
unaware that it was known to Dr. Brown. 
The first mention 1 saw of it was in Professor 
Lindley’s Introduction to Botany, in which 
the above quotation is cited, p. 128. As this 
structure appears to be confined to the genus 
Rhizophora, (that is, as I limit it,) it proba- 
bly lias some relation to internal structure. 
I have met with it in Rhizophora macrorrhiza, 
and from the examination of young anthers, 
presume it to exist in Rhizophora Candelaria , 
The anthers of these are nearly sessile, of 
considerable size, and compressed laterally, 
especially those of R. Candelaria. Their 
narrowest edges are internal and external ; or, 
in other words, situated aniicously and posii- 
cously with respect to the axis. On examin- 
ing their external surface more closely, we 
perceive numerous roundisli opaque bodies 
crowded together, and apparently imbedded 
in their substance, and towards their internal 
edge a depressed line running obliquely up- 
waids and inwards. This line is of small 
extent in R. Candelaria; in R. macrorrhiza 
it reaches nearly to the apex of the anther. If 
we make a transverse section at this stage, 
which, I should mention, is a short time 
before the expansion of the flower, we find 
that the body of the anther is cellular ; the cells 
towaids the centre being much the largest and 
most distinct. Around the periphery a con- 
siderable number of small sacs exist. Tltese 
are entirely closed, more or less ovate, and 
disposed without any obvious regularity. 
They are at this peiiod filled with somewhat 
immatuie pollen. They are of considerable 
depth, and perfectly tree from mutual com- 
munication. In R. Candelaria no sacs 
appeal to be developed along the outer or 
aniicous edge; in K. macrorrhiza, they aie 
developed around the whole periphery. They 
are however smaller and more compressed 
along the above edge than elsewhere. The 
circumferential tissue, or cuticle, as it may be 
called, is I ei lectly continuous with the mar- 
gins of the sac.s, and with the tissue interposed 
between them. In R. maciori hi/a, just 
before the expansion of the flower, this tissue 
or cuticle w'ill be found to have separated 
along the oblique line mentioned above, and 
from the tody of the anther. Two valves 
are thus formed, which, however, nece.ssarily 
remain in their original situation. After the 
expansion of the flovyer, theinner valve, which 
is the smaller of the two, separates fiom its 
base upwards, and becomes inclined inward.s. 
The outer is curved outwards, and remains 
attached both by its immediate base and apex. 
The body of the anther now presents an 
alveolar appearance, tlie alveoli being more 
or less filled with pollen. Traces of the 
original continuity of tissue remain adhering 
to the margins of the alveoli, as well as to 
those of the depressions visible on the inner 
surface of the valves, and which previously 
formed the lids of the alvtoli, or rather closed 
them in. There is no peculiarity of stiucture 
in the pollen connected with this singular and 
anomalous form of anther, which seems to lie 
allied to that of Viscum, so far as may be 
judged from the rO[)resentation given in A. L. 
De Jussieu’s Memoir on Captifoliaceae and 
Loranlhaceae, Annales du Museum, tom. 12, 
pi. 27 . fig. E. 
The direction of the valves of the anthers 
may be explained by assuming, that the the- 
cae, which they may be said to assi?tin form- 
ing, are anterior and posterior, in which case 
each valve will be single. This assumption, 
however, appears to me to be coniraiy to all 
analogy, nor am I acquainted with an in- 
stance of such a disposition. Or, we may 
take the type of an anther, as Dr. Brown 
has stated, to consist “ of two parallel folli- 
culi or thecse, fixed by their whole length to 
the margins of a compressed filament;” the 
parallelism being transverse. In this view of 
the case, the valves will be compound; that 
is, each will be formed of half a valve taken 
from the right side, and half from the left: 
the line of union of the two halves being the 
line of separation in other cases. 1 do not 
