405 
culated and hyaline, the inner oval, white, and opaque, with an apiculate 
tubercle at its base, and containing corpuscles of two kinds, the one angular 
and very minute, the other much larger and roundish ; the second, mucli 
smaller bodies, called the anthers (?), being little sacs filled with yellowish 
roundish granules, and attached by fours to the stalk of the capsule. 
The structure of Pilularia is of an analogous kind. The exact nature of 
the parts called anthers is unknown ; from the name that has been given 
them, it has been supposed that they were similar to the male apparatus of 
flowering plants ; but this opinion is altogether gratuitous, and has not been 
taken from any direct evidence. It seems more probable that they are abor- 
tive sacs, analogous to the larger bodies. With regard to the latter, Brong- 
niart has the following passage : — “ Experiments made upon the germination 
of Salvinia and Pilularia have long since shewn that in these plants the larger 
globules were true seeds ; and analogy permitted us to entertain the same 
belief in regard to Marsilea and AzoUa ; but it remained to be proved that the 
other bodies were really male organs, the action of which is necessary to fer- 
tilise the seeds. This, Professor Savi, of Pisa, had appeared to have demon - 
strated. Salvinia grows abundantly near that city, and there was no diffi- 
culty in procuring fresh plants for the purpose of experiment. He put into 
different vessels, 1 st, the seeds alone ; 2d, the male globules alone ; and 
3d, both mixed. In the first two vessels nothing appeared ; in the 3d, the 
seeds rose to the surface of the water and fully developed. But Duverney has 
since published a dissertation upon this plant, in which he states that, having 
repeated the experiments of Savi, he has not obtained the same results, and 
that the seeds, when separated from the supposed male organs, developed 
perfectly.” I am not acquainted with the particulars of these experiments, 
nor do I know with what degree of care the exact mode of germination in 
Salvinia has been observed ; but it appears more consonant to the analogical 
structure of other plants, particularly of Ferns and AzoUa, to consider the 
larger bodies, called seeds by these observers, as thecce ; in which I am the 
more confirmed, by finding it to be the view taken of their nature by Brown, 
Hooker and Greville. 
Geography. All are inhabitants of ditches or inundated places, in various 
parts of the world. They do not appear to be affected by climate so much as 
by situation, whence they have been detected in various parts of Europe, 
Asia, Africa, and America ; chiefly, however, in temperate latitudes. 
Properties. Unknown. 
GENERA. 
Marsilea, L. 
Pilularia, L. 
Order CCLXXXIII. SALVINIACEiE. 
Salvinie^e, Juss. in Mirb. Eltm. 853. (1815). — SalviniacejE, Bartl. Ord^Nat. 15. (1830); 
Martius, Ic. Plant. Crypt. 123. (1834). 
Essential Character. — Stems rooting and floating. Leaves sessile, entire, somewhat 
ovate, imbricated, usually, especially the upper ones, papillose. Receptacles globose, on 
the same individual, of two forms, attached to the stem near the base of the leaves and the 
roots, closed, valveless ; some filled with angular corpuscles confusedly enclosed, and by 
some taken for anthers; others 1 -celled, comprehending numerous small stalked many- 
spored bags inserted on a central column or on a tubercle of the base. Bartl. 
