10 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
ing to the petals, and that overhang the anthers, to the stigma, 
which they embrace. I have examined at least 200 or 300 an- 
thers, invariably with the same result, even after they have fallen 
away with the petals, and that they were not sterile is proved by 
the anther-cells being filled with perfect pollen-grains. I have re- 
marked that the cellules of the anther -casing, when broken under 
water, exude an oily substance, and it is probable that this may 
find its way into the pollen-cells and assist in the escape of the 
fertihzing particles in the manner I have just described. After 
each anther has discharged its pollen, the walls collapse upon the 
vacant spaces, and it then assumes the appearance of being 2- 
lobed, and as if each lobe had burst by a longitudinal line of de- 
hiscence ; but if the whole anther in this state be cut across and 
moistened, it will resume its original shape and display the four 
separate empty cells in a very distinct manner. ]\Iuch analogy 
will be found to exist in this structure to that of the anthers of 
Choretrum ; these are stated by Mr. Brown (Prodr. p. 354) to be 
4-locular and 4-valved, but although correct to a certain extent, 
this requires some explanation ; their form, which is somewhat 
peculiar, is tolerably well represented in Endlicher’s ^ Icono- 
graphia,^ tab. 45 ; the four rounded lobes there shown consist of 
four distinct pollen- cells, quadrately placed at right angles to the 
filament, round a short central connective, and inclosed by thick 
crystalline walls, as in Cathedra : but here, the apices of the cells, 
which point towards the style, at first open by a minute pore, 
close to the apical summit of the connective, when by the gra- 
dual contraction of the walls, the margins, beginning at these 
pores, recede and separate from it, showing a somewhat cruci- 
form opening in the summit, and leaving the connective in the 
central space like a short columnar receptacle, around which the 
pollen-grains of the four cells remain agglutinated : there exist 
in reality no sutural slits, so that the anther can hardly be said 
to be 4-valved. 
I have endeavoured to detect some similar mode of dehiscence 
in the anthers of Cathedra, which possess precisely the same 
structure, but in vainj although we might expect to find them 
discharge their pollen, as those of Choretrum are found to do. 
It may be weU here to adduce the very analogous instance of 
similar structure in Myzodendron, which will be touched upon at 
greater length on some future occasion, and which has been very 
beautifully demonstrated by Dr. Hooker in his admirable ana- 
lytical details of that genus in plates 104 and 105 of the ^ Flora 
Antarctica ^ ; in a subsequent memoir I shall compare the cu- 
rious analogies observable in these instances, as they will be found 
to offer a strong bearing upon the affinities of Cathedra. 
The anthers of Viscum will also serve to throw some light 
