2-5 /^
J'fJO.£
Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London.
cf. B. D. Jackson, General Index to the first twenty volumes of the Journal (Botany) and the proceedings, Nov. 1838 to June 1886 of the Linnean Society. London 1888, p. v-vii.
|
lumber |
Pages |
Dates of issue |
|
1 |
1-8 |
9 Mar. 1839 |
|
2 |
9-16 |
27 Apr. 1839 |
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3 |
17-32 |
16 May 1839 |
|
4 |
33-40 |
5 Nov. 1839 |
|
5 |
41-48 |
17 Dec. 1839 |
|
6 |
49-56 |
3 Mar. 1840 |
|
7 |
57-64 |
7 Apr. 1840 |
|
8 |
65-72 |
10 Nov. 1840 |
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9 |
73-80 |
17 Dec. 1840 |
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10 |
81-88 |
6 Apr. 1841 |
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11 |
89-96 |
22 Apr. 1841 |
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12 |
97-112 |
12 June 1841 |
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13 |
113-120 |
18 Jan. 1842 |
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14 |
121-128 |
5 Apr. 1842 |
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15 |
129-152 |
14 Nov. 1842 |
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16 |
153-160 |
16 Feb. 1843 |
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17 |
161-168 |
23 May 1843 |
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18 |
169-176 |
9 Aug. 1843 |
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19 |
177-184 |
7 Feb. 1844 |
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20 |
185-196 |
May 1844 |
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21 |
197-212 |
Sept. 1844 |
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22 |
213-220 |
? 1844 |
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23 |
221-228 |
Feb. 1845 |
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24-27 |
229-268 |
6 May 1845 |
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28 |
269-284 |
May 1846 |
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29 |
285-304 |
Aug. 1846 |
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30 |
305-312 |
16 Feb. 1847 |
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31 |
313-320 |
30 Apr. 1847 |
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32 |
321-328 |
13 May 1847 |
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33 |
329-340 |
9 Sept. 1847 |
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34 |
341-364 |
2 May 1848 |
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35 |
365-380 |
14 July 1848 |
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36 |
381-388 |
2 Oct. 1848 |
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37 |
389-401, index, title etc. |
15 May 1849 |
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38^0 |
1^8 |
6 Nov. 1849 |
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41 |
49-64 |
16 Apr. 1850 |
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42 |
65-80 |
18 Oct. 1850 |
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43 |
81-96 |
30 Oct. 1850 |
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44 |
97-112 |
15 Apr. 1851 |
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45-46 |
113-144 |
4 Nov. 1851 |
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47 |
145-160 |
19 Apr. 1852 |
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48 |
161-176 |
23 July 1852 |
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49-50 |
177-200 |
28 Oct. 1852 |
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51 |
201-220 |
23 June 1853 |
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52-53 |
221-252 |
8 Nov. 1853 |
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54 |
253-268 |
7 Feb. 1854 |
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55 |
269-284 |
2 May 1854 |
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56-57 |
285-316 |
19 Sept. 1854 |
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58 |
317-332 |
7 Nov. 1854 |
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59 |
333-348 |
6 Feb. 1855 |
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59t |
333t-336t |
27 Feb. 1855 |
|
60 |
349-364 |
1 May 1855 |
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61-63 |
365-412 |
5 Sept. 1855 |
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64-65 |
413-436 |
19 Oct. 1855 |
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66 |
437-448, title, index |
31 Oct. 1855 |
PROCEEDINGS
K
LINNEAN SOCIETY
OF LONDON.
VOL. I.
From November 1838 to June 1848.
PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY, BY R. AND J. E. TAYLOR, RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET.
LIST OF PAPERS.
page Arnott, G. a. Walker, LL.D., F.L.S., Regius Professor of Botany in the University of Glasgow. Note on Samara lata, L 326
Babington, Charles Cardale, Esq., M.A., F.L.S., F.G.S. &c.
On Cuscuta epilinum and halophyta 44
A Description of a new genus of Linece 90
On Spiranthes gemmipara 189
Babington, Churchill, Esq.
Remarks on British Lichens and Fungi, principally on Species or Varieties new to our Flora 32
Bauer, Francis, Esq., F.R.S. & L.S.
Observations on the Ergot 52
Bentham, George, Esq., F.L.S.
On the Heliamphora nutans, a new Pitcher Plant from British
Guiana 63
Account of two new genera of Plants, alUed to Olacinece 85
Berkeley, Rev. M. J., M.A., F.L.S.
On a Gall gathered in Cuba, by W. S. MacLeay, Esq., on the leaf of a plant belonging to the order Ochnacece 33
On an edible Fungus from Tierra del Fuego, and an allied Chi- lian species 97
On Agaricus crinitus, L., and some alUed species i. 230
Bird, Golding, A.M., M.D., F.R.S., F.L.S. &c.
On the Siliceous Armour of Equisetum hyemale, L., with an ac- count of its hitherto undescribed Stomatic Apparatus 290
Blackwall, John, Esq., F.L.S.
Descriptions of newly-discovered Spiders 41
The Difference in the Number of Eyes with which Spiders are provided, proposed as the Basis of their distribution into Tribes ; with the characters of a new Family and three new Genera
of Spiders 66
A Catalogue of Spiders, either not previously recorded or little known as indigenous to Great Britain, with remarks on their Habits and Economy 130, 131
BooTT, Francis, M.D., F.L.S. &c.
On Carex saxatilis, L., and an allied Species 180
Caricis species novae vel miniis cognitae 254,258, 284
Brown, Robert, Esq., D.C.L., V.P.L.S. &c.
Some Account of an undescribed Fossil Fruit 344
BuNBURY, Charles James Fox, Esq., F.L.S.
Remarks on certain Plants of Brazil, with descriptions of some which appear to be new 101, 108
IV
page Cantor, Theodore, M.D., Civil Surgeon, Prince of Wales's Island.
Observations on two Malayan species of Semnopithecus 235
Description of the Wild Dog of the Malayan Peninsula 236
Clark, — , Esq.
On the Sea Cocoa-nut of the Seychelles, Lodoicea Seychellarum, Comm. and Labill 152, 153
Clark, Bracy, Esq., F.L.S., Corresp. Memb. of the French Instit. An Appendix or Supplement to a Treatise on the CEstri and Cu- terebra of various Animals 99, 100
Clarke, Hyde, Esq., F.L.S.
Note on the Preservation of Specimens of Natural History 96
Clarke, Robert, Esq., Senior Assistant Surgeon to the Colony of Sierra Leone. A Notice of the African Grain called Fundi or Fundungi 155
Cooper, Daniel, Esq., A.L.S.
On the Structure of the Nut knovm as Vegetable Ivory 120
Couch, Jonathan, Esq., F.L.S.
A Letter on the occurrence of Wilson's Petrel {Procellaria Wil-
soni) on the British coast 2
An Account of a Fish, nearly allied to the genus Hemiramphus,
taken in Cornwall 161
Coxe, John Redman, M.D., Professor of Materia Medica in the University of Pennsylvania. Observations on some Fungi or Agarici, which by deliquescence form an inky fluid, drying into a bister-coloured mass, capable of being used as a water-colour for drawings, and of a very indestructible nature by means of common agencies 19
Curtis, John, Esq., F.L.S.
Descriptions of the Nests of two Hymenopterous Insects inhabit- ing Brazil, and of the species by which they were constructed 186
Descriptions of the Insects collected by Capt. P. P. King, R.N.', F.R.S., F.L.S. &c., in the Survey of the Straits of Magellan.. 196
On the Economy of the Order Strepsiptera 212
Don, David, Esq., Libr. L.S., Professor of Botany in King's Col- lege, London. Description of a new genus of Plants belonging to the Natural
Family Bignoniacece , 3
Descriptions of the Indian species of Iris 8
An Account of the Indian Species of Juncus and Luzula 9
A Monograph of the genus Disporum 44
A Monograph of Streptopus, with the description of a new
genus now first separated from it 47
On the Structure of the Tissues of Cycadea 53
On a peculiar kind of Organs existing in the Pitcher of Nepen- thes distillatoria 91
Doubleday, Edward, Esq., F.L.S. &c.
Remarks on the genus Argynnis of the ' Encyclopedic Metho- dique,* especially in regard to its subdivision by means of cha- racters drawn from the neuration of the wings 229, 233
On the Pterology of the Diurnal Lepidoptera, especially upon that of some Genera of the Heliconidce 348
page Edgrwobth, M. Pakenham, Esq., F.L.S., Bengal Civil Service. Descriptions of some unpublished species of Plants from North- western India 252
Description of a new genus of Lentibularice, with remarks on some Indian species of Utricularia 351
Falconer, Hugh, M.D., F.R.S., F.L.S. &c.. Superintendent of the
Hon. E.I.C.'s Botanic Garden at Calcutta. Extracts from Letters addressed to Dr. Royle, F.R.S., F.L.S. &c.,
Prof. Mat. Med., King's College 13
Description of Aucjclandia, a new genus of Composite, supposed
to be the Costus of Dioscorides 80
On a reformed character of the genus Cryptolepis of Brown ... 114 On Edgeworthia, a new genus of Plants of the Order Myrsinece 129
Description of the Asafoetida plant of Central Asia 308
Account of Gamoplexis, an undescribed genus of Orchideous
Plants ...320
Description of Athalamia, a new genus of Marchantiece 343
Forbes, Edward, Esq., F.R.S., F.L.S. &c.. Professor of Botany in King's College, London. On Pectinura, a new genus of OphiuridcB, and on the species
of Ophiura inhabiting the Eastern Mediterranean 167, 1 74
On the Radiata of the Eastern Mediterranean 1 84
On the Medusa proboscidalis of Forskahl 222
Notice of some Peloria varieties of Viola canina, L 382
Forrest, Thomas.
A notice of the Encephalartos horridtis, which flowered at Kin- mel Park....t 9
FoRSTER, Thomas, M.B., F.L.S. &c.
Oh the permanent varieties of Papaver orientale, L 158
On the Migration of the Swallows 296
Fox, George Townshend, Esq., F.L.S.
A notice of the Birds of Iceland, accompanied by specimens...... 21
Gardner, D. P., M.D., of Hampden Sidney College, Virginia.
On the Influence of the Dew-Point on the Temperature of Plants 119, 120
Gardner, George, Esq., F.L.S.
Description of Peltophyllum, a new genus of Plants allied to Triuris of Miers, with remarks on their Affinities 176
Giraud, Herbert, M.D.
Contributions to Vegetable Embryology, from Observations on the Origin and Development of the Embryo in Tropceolum majus 124
Griffith, William, Esq., F.L.S.
On the Ovulum of Santalum, LorantJms, Viscum, &c. 162, 166, 168 On the Root Parasites referred by authors to Rhizanthece and
their Allies 179, 180, 189, 190,209,216
On the Development of the Ovulum in Avicennia 223
On the Ovulum of Santalum, Osyris, Loranthus, and Viscum ... 223
On the Ambrosinia ciliata of Roxburgh 263
On the Anatomy of Eriocaulonece 271
On the Structure of the Ascidia and Stomata of Dischidia Raffie-
siana, Wall 279
On the Seeds of Careya, Roxb 280
VI
page
Papers on various subjects, bearing date in 1834 and 1835 281
On the Impregnation of Dii'cAirfia , 324
Hamilton, Francis Buchanan, M.D., F.R.S., F.L.S. &e.
Commentary on the Eighth Book of the Hortus Malabaricus of
Van Rheede 134, 293, 310, 343, 356
Commentary on the Ninth Book of Van Rheede's Hortus Mala-
barictis 361
Haro, a., M.D., of Mentz.
On Secale comutum, the Ergot of Rye, and on a species of Aspleniuniy related to A. Trichomanes, L 159
Harris, Major W. C.
Account of the Trees producing Myrrh and Frankincense, as found in those parts of the coast of the Red Sea and Indian Ocean whence those Gums were obtained in the first dawn of
Commerce .". 181
Hassall, Arthur Hill, Esq., F.L.S.
Observations on the Growth and Reproduction of Enteromorpha intestinalis 152
An Essay on the Distribution, Vitahty, Structure, Modes of Growth and Reproduction, and Uses of the Freshwater Con- fervcB 160, 163
Heming, G. C, M.D., F.L.S. &c.
On the Muscles which move the Tail and Tail-coverts of the Peacock 212
Henderson, Mr. Joseph.
On the reproductive Organs of Equisetum 74
Henfrey, Arthur, Esq., F.L.S.
Observations on the immediate causes of the Ascent of the Sap in Spring 229
HiNCKS, Rev. W., F.L.S., F.R.S.E. &c.
Descriptions of three Vegetable Monstrosities lately found at
York 46
Descriptions of some Vegetable Monstrosities 118
On the causes of disjunctions of Vegetable Substance, especially
those which are horizontal 273
Hogg, John, Esq., M.A., F.R.S., F.L.S. &c.
Additional observations on the Spongilla fluviatilis 8
Further Observations on the Spongilla fluviatilis, with some re- marks on the nature of the Spongice Marines 3Q, 225
Additional remarks on the Spongilla fluviatilis 226
D'HoMBRES Firmas, Baron.
Notes on the Seals of Linnajus 323
Hooker, Joseph Dalton, M.D., F.R.S., F.L.S. &c.
An Enumeration of the Plants of the Galapagos Islands ... 231, 238,
263, 276 On the Vegetation of the Galapagos Archipelago, as compared with that of some other Tropical Islands and of the Continent of America 312, 313
Hope, Rev. F. W., M.A., F.R.S. & L.S.
Descriptions of some new Insects collected in Assam, by William Griffith, Esq., Assistant Surgeon in the Madras Medical Ser- vice 42
vu
page Descriptions of some new Insects collected in Assam, by William Griffith, Esq., Assistant Surgeon in the Madras Medical Esta- blishment ^^
On some rare and beautiful Coleopterous Insects from Silhet, the major part belonging to the collection of Frederic Parry, Esq. of Cheltenham 127, 157
KipPiST, Richard, Esq., Libr. L.S.
On the existence of Spiral Cells in the Seeds of Acanthacea 63
On Jansonia, a new genus of Leguminosee, from Western Au- stralia 330
KoLLiKER, Albert, Professor of Physiology and Comparative Ana- tomy in the University of Zurich. Some Observations upon the Structure of two new species of Hec- ^ocofyZe parasitic upon Tremoctopus violaceus, Delle Chiaje, and Argonauta Argo, L., with an exposition of the hypothesis that these HectocotyloB are the males of the Cephalopoda upon which they are found 236, 237
Lankester, Edwin, M.D., F.R.S., F.L.S. &c.
On a White Incrustation on Stones, from the bed of the river
Annan 81
Lhotsky, Dr. John.
An Account of a species of Lepidosperma, from Tasman's Penin- sula, Van Diemen's Land 4
Some Data towards a Botanical Geography of New Holland ... 11 A Biographical Sketch of Ferdinand Bauer, Natural History Painter to the Expedition under Capt. Flinders 39
LiNDLEY, John, Esq., Ph.D., F.R.S., F.L.S. &c.. Professor of Botany in University College, London. A Note upon the Anatomy of the Roots of Ophrydeee 10
Maconochie, Capt. Alexander, R.N., late Lieutenant-Governor of Norfolk Island. Some Notes on the Natural History of Norfolk Island 228
Main, James, A.L.S.
Remarks on Vegetable Physiology 226
Michelotti, Signor Giovanni.
Observations on some new or little-known species of Polyparia, found in the supercretaceous strata of Italy 95
MiERS, John, Esq., F.R.S., F.L.S. &c.
On some new Brazilian Plants allied to the Natural Order Bur-
manniacecB 60
Additional Observations on some Plants alUed to the Natural
Order Burmanniacece 66
Description of a new genus of Plants from Brazil 96
On a new genus of Plants from Chili 122
On a new genus of Plants of the family Burmanniacece 328
On the genus Atamisquea 355
Nees von Esenbeck, C. G., F.M.L.S., President of the Imperial Leopoldino-Caroline Academy Naturae Curiosorum. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Graminete and Cyperacea con- tained in the Indian Herbarium of Dr. Royle 92
Newport, George, Esq., F.R.S., F.L.S. &c.
Monograph on the Class Myriapoda, Order Chilopoda, with ob- servations on the general arrangement of the Articulata 190, 191
Vlll
page Additions and Corrections to his Monograph of the Myriapoda
Chilopoda 231
On the Natural History, Development, and Anatomy of the Oil
Beetle, Meloe, more especially Meloe cicatricosus. Leach 268
On the Aqueous Vapour, and on the dark colour of the Wax, in
Bee-hives 288
Note on the Generation oi Aphides 292
On the Natural History, Anatomy and Development of Meloe
(Second Memoir) 317
Note on Cryptophagus cellaris, Payk 327
On the Natural History, Anatomy and Development of Meloe
(Third Memoir, the Anatomy) 346, 368
On the Formation and Use of the Air-Sacs and Dilated Tracheae
in Insects 353
On the Anatomy and affinities oi Pteronarcys regalis, Newm. 370,387
Ord, George, Esq., F.L.S.
Notes on the Habits of the Box-Tortoise of the United States of America, the Cw^MC?a CaroZma of Gray 116
Owen, Richard, Esq., F.R.S., F.L.S. &c.
On a new Species of the genus Lepidosiren of Fitzinger and Natterer 27
Planchon, J. E., Docteur-es-Sciences.
On Meliantheee, a new natural order of Plants 36 1
QuEKETT, Edwin John, Esq., F.L.S.
Observations on the Anatomical and Physiological Nature of Ergot in certain Grasses 4
Observations on a certain Crystalline Matter found on the re- cently cut surfaces of the Wood of the Red Cedar 58
Some ftirther Observations on the Nature of the Ergot of Grasses 160
Remarks on the Examination of some Fossil Woods which tend to elucidate the structure of certain tissues in the recent Plant 232
On the Development of Starch and Chlorophylle 293
Ralph, Thomas Shearman, Esq., A.L.S. &c.
On the Axial and Ab-axial arrangement of Carpels 284
On the Structure of Viola, in connection with its Impregnation 297
Reeve, Lovell, Esq., A.L.S. &c.
On the calcifying functions of the Cowry and the Olive, two ge- nera of Pectinibranchiate Mollusks 307
On the Structure and Comparative Physiology of Chiton and Chitonellus 322
RuDGE, Edward, Esq., F.R.S., F.L.S. &c.
A notice of Cereus tetragonus 7
SCHOMBURGK, Sir RoBERT H.
Description of the Curata, a plant of the tribe of Bamhusece, of the culm of which the Indians of Guiana prepare their Sarba- cans or Blowpipes 49
Smith, Mr. John, A.L.S; of the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew.
Observations on the cause of Ergot 1
A Notice of a Plant which produces perfect Seeds without any
apparent action of Pollen on the Stigma 41
A Note on the Fern known as Aspidium Baromez 58
Arrangement and Definition of the Genera of Ferns, founded
IX
upon their venation, with examples of the species, and obser- vations on the affinities of each genus 75
Solly, Edw^ard, Esq., jun., F.R.S., F.L.S. &c.
On the SoHd Vegetable Oils ^ 214
SowERBY, G. B., Esq., F.L.S. &c.
Description of a new species of Cowry 314
SuTTOR, George, Esq., F.L.S. &c.
Notes on the Forest-trees of Australia 177
Taylor, William, Esq., F.L.S.
A Note on the Bokhara Clover ^^
Thwaites, G. H. K., Esq.
On the Structure and Movements oi Bacillaria paradoxa, Gmel. 310 On the early stages of the Development of Lemanea Jluviatilis, Agardh 360
Valentine, William, Esq., F.LTS.
On the Structure and Development of the Reproductive organs
oi Pilularia glohulifera 20
Supplementary Observations on the Development of the Theea, and on the Sexes of Mosses 33
Walker, Francis, Esq., F.L.S. &c.
Notes on the Variations of Structure in the British species of
EurytomidcB 233
Characters of undescribed species of British CAaZcirfi^e* 261
Westwood, John Obadiah, Esq., F.L.S. &c.
Descriptions of some new species of the Coleopterous genus
Cerapterus , 76
Observations on the genus Derbe of Fabricius 82
A Synopsis of the Coleopterous family Paussida, with descrip- tions of a new Genus and some new Species 110
A Description of an additional species of Paussus 115
Description of a new Indian species of Paussus 133
On the occurrence of the Potatoe Disease, independent of the
Attacks of Insects 345
Descriptions of some new species of Athyreus, MacL., a genus
of Lamellicorn Beetles 358
On the Australian species of the Coleopterous genus Bolboce-
ras, Kirby 365
Descriptions of some new or imperfectly known Species of Bol- boceras 384
White, Adam, Esq., F.L.S. &c.
Notes towards a Statistical Account of the Fauna of New Zea- land and the Auckland Islands, so far as regards Annulose Animals 306
Woods, Joseph, Esq., F.L.S. &c.
Attempt to arrange the Carices of Middle Europe 209
SHORT COMMUNICATIONS,
page Ansell, John, Esq.
Notice of Juncus diffusus, Hoppe, gathered near Hoddesdon, Herts 313
Babington, Charles Cardale, Esq., F.L.S. &c.
Notice of some Fir-cones taken from beneath about 10 feet of sohd peat at Burrishoole, near Newport, co. Mayo 89
Backhouse, James, Jun., Esq.
Notice of specimens of Spergula stricta, Swartz., and of Equise- turn Drummondii, Hook., both collected in Teesdale, Yorkshire 222
Bennett, John Joseph, Esq., F.R.S., Sec.L.S. &c.
Note on a new species of the genus Arundinaria of Michaux ... 61
BiDWELL, J. C, Esq.
Notice of a new species of Araucaria from the neighbourhood of Moreton Bay, and of the germination of Nuytsia Jloribunda 123
BoRRER, William, Esq., F.R.S., F.L.S. &c.
Notice of Leersia oryzoides, Swartz, gathered in Henfield Level, Sussex 222
BosTOCK, John Ashton, Esq.
Extract of a Letter to J. Bostock, Esq., M.D., F.L.S., on an extraordinary Flight of Locusts observed between Cawnpore and Agra 183
Bromfield, William Arnold. M.D., F.L.S.
Notice of a species of Calamintha from the Isle of Wight 179
Burnham, J., Esq.
Extract of a Letter to H. Clarke, Esq., F.L.S 99
Cameron, Mr. Richard, A.L.S.
Notice of a Fern, cultivated in the garden of the Birmingham Horticultural Society as the Agnus Scythicus, or Vegetable Lamb 57
Clarke, Joshua, Esq.
Notice of specimens of Galium Vaillantii, Dec, gathered near
Saffron Walden 222
Notice of Barkhausia setosa, Dec, found near Safiron Walden... 179
Cooper, Daniel, Esq., A.L.S.
Notice of specimens of Lastrea rigida collected at Settle 52
Cumming, Mr. William.
Notice of specimens of Lagurus ovatu^ collected near Safiron
Walden 49
Notice of specimens of Lagurus ovatus, Briza maocima, and
Mentha crispa, gathered near Safiron Walden 81
XI
page Farre, Frederick, M.D., F.L.S. &c.
Notice of a singular gall on the leaves of a species of Oak from Mexico 65
Felkin, William, Esq., F.L.S.
Notice of some specimens of Sea- Island Cotton grown in a
cotton-mill in the centre of Manchester 99
Fox, George Townshend, Esq., F.L.S.
Notice of a specimen of Phrynosoma comutum from Texas 67
Francis, George, Esq., F.L.S.
Notice of Lepwrandra 5amc?ora, Graham 73
Gardner, George, Esq., F.L.S. &c.
Extract of a Letter to J. Miers, Esq., F.L.S 99
Gould, John, Esq., F.R.S., F.L.S. &c.
Notice of a nondescript Lizai'd from New Holland 81
Griffith, William, Esq., F.L.S.
Extracts of Letters to R. H. Solly, Esq., F.L.S., on the Ovula of Ephedra and Callipeltis ; and on the parasitism of Cuscuta
and Orobanche 90
Extract of a Letter to R. H. Solly, Esq., F.L.S., on the Ovulum
- of Osyris 113
Extract of a Letter to R. H. Solly, Esq., F.L.S., on the Ovula of Santalum and Osyris ; and on the Sporules of Isoetes, Azolla, and Anthoceros 121
Hankey, John Alexander, Esq., F.L.S.
Notice of specimens of Fritillaria Meleagris gathered at Finch- ley, Middlesex 134
Hassall, Arthur Hill, Esq., F.L.S.
Notice of an Apple in which decay had been induced by inocula- tion of decayed matter 160
Hincks, Rev. William, F.L.S.
Notice of a specimen believed to belong to Neottia gemmipara. Smith, from the collection of Dr. Wood of Cork 1 62
Home, Sir Everard, Bart., Capt. R.N.
Extract of a Letter to R. Brown, Esq., V.P.L.S., giving an Ac- count of the Measurement of some of the largest of the New Zealand and Norfolk Island Pines 321
Hope, Rev. Frederic William, F.L.S.
Notice of an extensive Collection of Engraved Portraits of Linnaeus 1 &6
HoRE, Rev. William Strong, F.L.S.
Notice of a remarkable variety of Duck 46
Iliff, William Tiffin, Esq., F.L.S.
Notice of some larvse believed to belong to Musca canicularis, contained in the Urate of Ammonia voided by a Boa Con- strictor 52
Janson, Joseph, Esq., F.L.S.
Notice of specimens of Neottia cestivalis collected near Lynd-
hurst 80
Notice of some living flowering plants of the "hungry rice" of
Sierra Leone, Paspalum exile, Kipp 167
KiPPisT, Richard, Esq., Libr. L.S. &c.
Note on Crepis biennis and Barkhausia taraxacifolia 98
xu
page Description of the Fundi or Fundungi, a new species of granife-
rous Paspalum from the colony of Sierra Leone 156
Note on the characters and distribution of Barkhausia setosa,
Dec 179
Lankester, Edwin, M.D., F.R.S., F.L.S. &c.
Notice of an Agaric in which gills were abundantly developed on
a portion of the surface of the pileus directly over the stipes... 226 Notice of a Fucus sold in London under the name of " Australian
Moss," believed to agere with Fucus spinosus, L 267
Lay, John Tradescant, Esq.
Notice of some specimens of the Keih-seen-me, a species of Alga related to Nostoc, and eaten as a dehcacy among the Chinese 180
Mann, Thomas White, Esq., F.L.S.
Notice of an instance of extraordinary vitality in a specimen of Sedum Telephium 89
Newman, Edward, Esq., F.L.S.
Notice of a species of Trichomanes lately found in the co. Kerry, and supposed to be distinct from Tr. speciosum 179
Newport, George, Esq., F.R.S., F.L.S. &c.
Notice of Fteronarcys regalis, Newm., a Neuropterous insect furnished with external branchiae in its perfect state 180
Northumberland, His Grace The Duke of.
Notice of the Fruit of Chrysophyllum monopyrenum, Sw., grown
at Sion House 99
Notice of the Fruit of Diospyros edulis, grown at Sion House ... 134
Ogilby, William, Esq., F.L.S.
Notice of a new species of Clover (allied to TrifoUum resupina- tum) recently introduced from Cabul 80
Ralph, Thomas Shearman, Esq., A.L.S.
Notice of a Collection of Indian Fruits and Seeds presented by... 158
Rauch, Francis, Esq.
Notice of a Fruit of Salisburia adiantifolia, grown in the Impe- rial Garden at Vienna 73
Read, W. H. Rudston, Esq., F.L.S.
Notice of a shell of Spondylus varius, Brod., beneath the enamel of which a quantity of water had been retained for several months 134
Reeve, Lovell, Esq., F.L.S.
Notice of a specimen in spirits of the Animal of Panopoea Al- drovandi 160
Solly, Richard Horsman, Esq., F.R.S., F.L.S.
Notice of a male plant of Encephalartos pungens, which had
flowered in the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew 52
Notice of some effects produced on specimens of Fossil Wood
preserved in a Cedar-wood Cabinet 128
Stocks, J. Ellerton, Esq., M.D., F.L.S.
Notes on the Vegetation of Scinde 367
Taylor, William, Esq., F.L.S.
Notice of the Oil of Madia sativa, grown neai* Ipswich 77
Notice of the seeds, oil and oil-cake of Camelina sativa, Crantz. 162
XIU
page Ward, Nathaniel Baoshaw, Esq., F.L.S.
Notice of a specimen of the Agnus Scythicus, or Vegetable Lamb 58
Notice of a Plant of Musa Cavendishii brought from the Navi- gators' Island in one of Mr. Ward's cases 157
Notice of specimens exhibiting the extreme states of Chondrus crispus, Lyn^bye, gathered at Linmouth, N. Devon 283
Notice of specimens of Uncaria procumbens, Burch. ; and of a portion of the stipes of a Fern, probably Pteris esculenta, Sol. 293
Notice of Italian Specimens of Adiantum Capillus Veneris, L., and Asplenium Trichomanes, L., one of the latter bearing on several of its pinnae sori, taking their origin from the upper as well as from the lower surface of the frond ; also of a branch of a Scotch Fir hollowed by hornets ; 317
Notice of several Ferns collected in Ireland 326
Watson, Hewett Cottrell, Esq., F.L.S.
Notice of specimens of Carum Bulbocastanum gathered near Cherry Hinton, and of Seseli Ldbanotis gathered near Seaford 51 Westcott, Mr. Frederick.
Description of a Fern cultivated in the Garden of the Birming- ham Horticultural Society as the Agnus Scythicus, or Vegeta- ble Lamb 58
Westwood, John Obadiah, Esq., F.L.S.
Notice of various Insects from the Collection of Lieut.-Col. J. B.
Hearsey 131
Notice of the Aerial processes of the roots of Sonneratia acida,
L., sent by Mr. Templeton from Ceylon 166
Notice of some (Estrideous Insects received from Professors Zet-
terstedt and Dahlbom 179
Notice of several instances of Insect Monstrosities 346
Notice of the Silk spun by the Caterpillars of the new Indian
Silk Moth Bombyx Huttoni,Westw 357
Wood, Rev. William, B.D., F.L.S.
Notice of a remarkable variety of Typha angustifolia 42
Woods, Joseph, Esq., F.L.S. &c.
On Crepis biennis and Barkhausia taraxacifoUa 98
Wright, Hon. H.
Notice of specimens of the inner bark of the Cinnamon-tree, peeled of extraordinary length 151
Yarrell, William, Esq., F.L.S.
Notice of an interwoven mass of filaments of Conferva fluviatilis, of extraordinary size 65
XIV
OBITUARY NOTICES.
page Abraham, James Hussey ... 2.98
AUen, William 202
Anderson, William 331
Ansley, John 135
Baily, Francis 238
Bartlet, John ^7
Bauer, Francis 101
Beatty, Sir Wm., Knt., M.D. . 135
Bedford, John, Duke of &7
Beetham, William Q7
Bell, Sir Charles, K.H 135
Bell, Rev. Isaac 135
Bevan, Thomas, M.D 332
Biggs, Arthur 371
Blumenbach, John Fred., M.D. 72
Bostock, John, M.D 333
Bowman, John Eddowes 1 35
Bree, Rev. Robert Francis 145
Bridgman, William 334
Brookes, Samuel 34
Butt, Rev. Thomas 137
Carhsle, Sir Anthony, Knt. ... 104 Chichester, The Bishop of ... 105
Chinnock, Henry Singer 298
Christy, William, Jun 67
Churchill, Lord Chas. Spencer 67 Churchill, Lord Henry John
Spencer 105
Clarke, Edmund John, M.D. . 137
Coles, George 137
Cooper, Daniel 173
Cordeaux, Charles, M.D 239
Cotton, Richard 67
Cunningham, Allan &7
Cuvier, Frederic 35
Dalton, Rev. James 172
Davy, Rev. Martin, D.D 34 *
DeCandoUe, Augustin Pyramus 142 Delessert, Baron Benjamin ... 339
Dietrichsen, Lionel 334
Don, David 145
Dreyer, Rev. Richard, LL.B. . 34
Dunston, John 372
Dutrochet, Henri, M.D 341
Ellis, John 372
Famham, John Lord. 34
page
Field, Barron 298
Finch, William, M.D 372
Forester, Forester Rich., M.D. 203
Fox, George Townshend 372
Gilbert, Davies 68
Gimbemat, Charles de 35
Gisborne, Rev. Thomas 299
Goodall, Rev. Joseph, D.D. ... 70 Goodenough, The Very Rev.
Edmund, D.D 239
Goolden, Richard 137
Graham, Robert, M.D 300
Grey, Sir Thomas, Kt., M.D. 334
Griffith, William 239
Guillemard, John Lewis 244
Hailstone, Rev. John, M.A. ... 372
Harlan, Richard, M.D 246
Harrison, William 137
Hatchett, Charles 334
Hills, Robert 244
Holford, Charles 34
HoUinshed, Lawrence Brock ... 34
Holme, Edward, M.D 373
Hope, Thomas Charles, M.D. 250
Hornemann, Jens Wilken 145
Hoy, James Barlow 204
Hull, John, M.D 34
Hunneman, John 36
Hurlock, Joseph 244
Jacquin, Baron Joseph Francis 73
Jamison, Sir John, M.D 244
Janson, Joseph 301
Johnson, James Rawlins, M.D. 137
Keith, Rev. Patrick 70
Kendrick, James, M.D 376
Kent, William 71
Knapp, John Leonard 244
Knight, Henry Gaily, M.P. ... 301
Knowlton, Thomas 302
Lagasca, Don Mariano 71
Lambert, Aylmer Bourke 137
Lane, Charles 139
Latham, John, M.D 172
Latham, Richard 302
Leigh, Richard 139
Locke, WiUiam Oliver, M.D. 376
XV
page
Loddiges, George 334
Loudoji, John Claudius 204
Lubbock, Sir John Win., Bart. 105
Lush, Charles, M.D 302
Lynn, James, M.D 172
Macartney, James, M.D 206
Main, James 303
Marlborough, George, Duke of ^7
Martin, Matthew 35
Matthews, Alexander 173
May cock, James Dottin, M.D. 72
Menzies, Archibald 139
Mills, William 72
Milne, George 35
Morgan, John 376
Mountnorris, the Earl of 245
Newman, Rev. Thos., M. A. ... 172 Newton, Rev. Thos., M. A. ...172
Nixon, Rev. Robert, B.D 35
Northumberland, Hugh Percy,
Duke of 335
Nouaille, Peter 303
Onley, Charles SaviUe 207
Parkmson, John 336
Pavon, Don Jose 208
Peete, William 377
Pennant, David 141
Penny, George 36
Quekett, Edwin John 378
Rackett, Rev. Thomas, M. A. ... 105
Roddam, George, M.D 379
Rokewode, John Gage 172
Rudge, Edward 337
St. Aubyn, Sir John, Bart. ... 72
page St. Hilaire, Etienne Geoflroy . 247
Samouelle, George 304
Saye and Sele, Lord 338
Sharpe, James 72
Sheppard, Rev. J. Revett, M.A. 106
Simmons, Richard, M.D 338
Shgo, the Marquis of 245
Smimove, John 245
Solly, Samuel 339
Sowerby, Charles Edward 149
Stephenson, Simon 207
Sternberg, Gaspard Count ... 35
Stuart, Daniel 339
Sutton, Charles, D.D 341
Taylor, Thomas, M.D 379
Tnnius, Karl Beruhard von ... 249
Valentia, Lord Viscount 1 06
Vigors, Nicholas Aylward,
D.C.L 106
Viney, Major-General 107
Walsingham, Lord, Rev. Thos. 72
Wedgewood, John 245
Weekes, Richard 380
Wheeler, Thomas 380
Wickham, William Nicholas ... 339 Wilmot, Sir John Eardley, Bart. 381 Wilmot, R. Montague, M.B.... 107
Wood, George Wilham 207
Wood, Rev. William, B.D. ...107
Woods, Henry 107
Wright, Francis Boucher 107
Young, William Weston 36
Younge, William, M.D 35
PROCEEDINGS
OF THE
LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON.
November 6, 1838. Edward Forster, Esq., V.P., in the Chair.
The Society assembled this evening for the Session.
The Vice President stated that the late Nathaniel John Winch, Esq.. A.L.S., of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, had bequeathed to the So- ciety his entire herbarium, consisting of upwards of 12,000 species of plants, and his librar)^ of Natural History.
f Read, " Observations on the' cause of Ergot." By Mr. John
Smith, A.L.S., of the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew.
Mr. Smith, like many others, liad supposed that the ergot of rye "Was an organized fungus, growing in the florets of the r}'e and other grasses, but in the early part of October his attention was particu- larly directed to the subject by observing several large drops of a brown -coloured fluid suspended from a spike of a species of Elymus, in which were several full-grown ergots, and others in a younger state. The fluid was viscid and had a saccharine flavour. On subjecting a portion of it to the microscope, it was found to be full of innume- rable minute, oblong, transparent bodies, varying from the 3000th to the 7000th of an inch, and resembling the sporules of fungi, and slightly bent, having a somewhat indistinct spot at each end. On applying a drop of water to a full-grown ergot, multitudes of these bodies became disengaged from its surface, and issued from the cracks or longitudinal fissures which generally characterize the fully develoi)ed ergot. These bodies imparted to the water a milky ap- pearance. He observed the same bodies on ergot? of all ages and sizes, and on opening the unexpanded flowers of ergot-bearing spikes, they were met with in abundance on the ditterent organs, especially on the anthers; for, on cutting an anther and applying water, they
No. I — Proceedings of the Linnean Society.
2 Linnean Society, [Nov. 6, 1838.
were seen to float out along with the pollen. They were also ob- served on the ovarium, and in little clusters on the hairs and feathery stigmata. These bodies are found to accompany the ergot through all its stages, and are present even before the fecundation of the ova- rium, at least before the discharge of the pollen, and consequently before there is any appearance of an ergot ; they therefore cannot be the sporules, but must be the cellules of the minute fungus itself. On examining an ergot, the surface before being moistened presents under the microscope the appearance of a thin whitish pruinose crust, which, on the application of moisture, speedily separates into myriads of the minute transparent cellules before mentioned. On viewing the ergot in the dry state under the microscope, the pruinose appearance of the crust will be found to arise from these bodies being united together longitudinally, forming slightly elevated spiculse, but crowded underneath and forming a' kind of crust. These cellules so united present the appearance of slender-jointed filaments, either simple or branched, in which state they occur likewise on the an- thers. Mr. Smith regards these cellules as the articulations of a minute filamentous fungus which is developed in the early stage of the flower,' and propagating itself by the separation of the joints and impregnating the soil or the perfect seeds of the gra^, which on germination and subsequent development carry up some of the re- productive matter of the fungus, which again developes itself in the flower, in the manner |hat Mr. Francis Bauer has shown to take place in the propagation of the smut and grain- worms in wheat.
Read, "A Letter on the occurrence of Wilson's Petrel (Pro ce//ana Wilsoni) on the British coast." By Jonathan Couch, Esq., F.L.S.
A single specimen of the bird was found in a field near Polperro in Cornwall, about the middle of August last, when the stormy pe- trel (P. pelagica) abounded on the coast. Mr. C. instituted a com- parison between them, and the result was as follows :
"Weight of the stormy petrel 4 drams, 35 grains; of Wilson's petrel 5 drams, 2 scruples.
Length 6 inches 7 inches.
Spread of wings 14^ — 16^ —
Wings extended beyond the tail ... -| — l^- —
With the lears extended, the toes ) , ,. t> j xt. ^ -i • ni-
extend short of the tail..: ) ^ ^^""- ^^^^"^ *^^ ^^'^ - ^"- ^ 1^"-
The stormy petrel is feathered just to the basal joint ; but in Wilson's petrel the feathers only approach within 4 lines of it. In the former the tarsus is in length 1 line short of an inch, in the latter 1 inch 4 lines, and equally slender with the former ; and the
Nov. 20, 1838.] Linnean Society. 3
hinder toe is so minute that it might escape any but attentive exa- mination. In the bill the markings are more strongly defined, with the terminal hook longer and sharper. The prominence of the fore- head is less than in the more common species. Colour of the head black with a hoary tint, lighter on the throat. The back, belly, wings, and tail are ferruginous, lighter on the wing coverts ; the rump white, and a little of the same at the vent. Tarsi and feet black, with a longitudinal stripe of sulphur-yellow, more of a golden at the bor- ders or the web between each toe.
The stouter configuration of this species enabling it better to escape the violence of a storm may be ascribed perhaps as a reason why it is not more often found on our coasts.
On examining the stomach of a stormy petrel Mr. Couch found about half an inch of a common tallow candle, of a size so dispro- tionate to the bill and gullet of the bird, that it seems wonderful how it could have been able to swallow it.
November 20. Edward Forster,,Esq., V.P., in the Chair.
Read, " Description of a new Genus of Plants belonging to the Natural Family Bignoniacece." By D. Don, Esq., Libr. L.S., Prof. Bot. King's College.
The subject of this paper was collected by Capt. Sir James Ed- ward Alexander, during a journey through the interior of Southern Africa to the western coast. The plant was discovered by that en- terprising traveller in the open desert, called the Kei Kaap, in Great Namaqua Land, in 25° S. latitude and 17° E. longitude. It is a thorny bush, about six feet high, with small simple, hoary, wrinkled, serrated leaves and large white flowers. There can be no doubt that the plant belongs to the Bignoniacece, although in habit it bears a stronger resemblance to Verhenacece, especially to Duranta and Gmelina. In its spathaceous calyx and regular funnel-shaped corolla the genus comes near to Spathodea, but is abundantly distinguished from it by the cells of the anthers being parallel and connate from the middle upwards. Its regular funnel-shaped corolla, spathaceous calyx, equal stamina, and serrated leaves essentially distinguish it from Burchell's curious genus Rhigozum, with which it agrees in habit. On the specimen were two expanded flowers and a bud. The calyic in all three had six teeth, and both the expanded flowers and the bud had a six-cleft limb ; one of these had seven stamens, and the
4 Linnean Society, [Dec. 4,
other, as well as the bud, six, so that this last may be regarded as the normal number.
The following- are the name and characters of this new genus.
Catophractes. Calyx spathaceus, hinc fissus, inde 6-dentatus. Corolla
infundibuliformis : limbo C-lobo, patenti, aequali. Stamina 6, raro 7.
subaequalia, exserta. Antherarum loculi paralleli, e medio sursum con-
nati. Ovarium abbreviatum, conicum, biloculare ?
Frutex (namaquensis) erectus, spinosus. Folia fasciculata, simplicia,
serrata. Flores laterales, subsessiles, speciosi, albi. Sp. 1. C. Alexandri.
Read, ** An Account of a species of Lepidosperma, from Tasman's Peninsula, Van Diemen's Land.'* By Dr. Lhotsky. Communicated byProf. Don,Libr. L.S.
This species is nearly allied to the Lepidosperma elatior of Labil- lardi^re, and is remarkable for the great length of its leaves, varying from 10 to 15 and even 20 feet. A specimen exhibited to the meet- ing had the leaf upwards of 13 feet long. It was discovered by Dr. Lhotsky in Tasman's Peninsula, Van Diemen's Land, growing in a dense jungle, through which its long slender leaves contrive to penetrate. It is termed " Cutting Grass," and like the other spe- cies of this Cyperaceous genus is characterized by the sharp edges of its leaves, which inflict wounds on the unwary traveller who happens to pass the plant hastily.
December 4. Edward Forster, Esq., V.P., in the Chair.
G. E. Dennes, Esq., Vine Street, Golden Square ; R. G. Holland, Esq., Surgeon, Sheffield; and Henry Laxton, Esq., Parliament Street, were elected Fellows of the Society.
Read, " Observations on the Anatomical and Physiological Na- ture of Ergot in certain Grasses." By E. J. Queckett, Esq., F.L.S.
Having had the opportunity of examining the formation of the ergot in several grasses, the author has endeavoured to trace the cause and origin of this singular formation on them, and particularly on Elymus sabulosus.
It was found, that when a grain of the grass was to be replaced by an ergot, it presented before the period of expansion of the flower a singular mildewed appearance. This, when examined microsco- pically, was seen to consist of filaments, at whose base were myriads
I
1838.] lAnnean Society. 5
of particles of exceedingly diminutive size, forming a complete coating to the young grain, so that no part of its body was visible through it.
From this state the increase of the young ergot, but not of the filaments and particles, was very rapid ; for in a short time after, when the ergot began to appear between the paleae of the flower, its violet black colour was then visible, on account of the mildewed appear^ ance not keeping pace in development with the ergot*.
After the ergot begins to appear beyond the paleae, it in a short time attains its full size, and loses almost entirely its mildewed covering, presenting now its perfect violet black surface, and mea- sures in different specimens from half an inch to one inch and half.
If the ergot be examined carefully at this period, in such speci- mens as have not been subjected to injury or displacement on the plant, it will be found that at its base are the two scales which are observable in the same place in the healthy grain, and that it is ar- ticulated to the receptacle, and separates from it as readily as the grain when ripe does from the same spot, and at the apex of it is a small body, frequently hairy, on which can be observed the remains of the stigmas.
From the relations of the ergot to these parts, and compared with those of the healthy grain, it is found that it is placed between and upon the same organs as the grain, and there cannot be a doubt but that this singular body is not an independent fungus, but a grain diseased from causes presently to be mentioned.
When the particles before mentioned, which occur on the surface of the ergot, and which are also found in a viscid fluid that hangs about the paleae of the infected grass, are examined by the micro- scope, their size is found to be -nAnr part of an inch in length, and tttW part of an inch in diameter in the generality of instances, and their number is countless, probably 20 millions on each ergot. When magnified from 500 to 800 times, it then can be observed that their interior contains several well-defined green dots or granules, two or three being the most common numbers.
If these particles, which are no doubt the cause of the ergot, as they are found on every ergotized grass and are the sporidia of a cer- tain fungus, be kept moistened on any convenient surface, as between a plate of glass and talc, they soon commence germinating (if recent)
• The growth of the ergot is very rapid when compared with that of the grain. Philippar, in his * Traite Organographique et Physiologico-agricole sur I'Ergot, &c., dans les Cereales', observed some particular plants of rye, whilst passing by a certain corn-field, which had no appearance of ergot, but ten or twelve days after these same plants had full-sized ergots upon them.
6 Linnean Society, [Dec. 4, 1838.
in various ways ; sometimes by emitting a tube or tubes containing green granules, similar to those in the interior of the sporidia, and which probably separate finally into as many perfect reproductive atoms ; in other instances one sporidium gives off a minute process from its side, which goes on increasing and ultimately becomes like its parent, and then separates from it. Often several sporidia so ge- nerated, remain united to each other for a short time, forming a mo- niliform filament, composed frequently of seven or eight joints.
The next and last method is the most perfect when it is found that the sporidia have their cavity divided by a septum, which is formed by a green granule of the interior extending itself laterally ; each half of each sporidium being again subdivided, and by endless repetitions of this process a radiated plant is produced, which, when arrived at a certain size and age, bears upon its branchlets sporidia similar to that one from which it was first produced.
From these observations, it is proved that the sporidia, foimd on the surface of the diseased grain, can germinate and ultimately develope the means of their reproduction, without forming any body analo- gous in shape or structure to an ergot, which fact is conclusive that the filaments and sporidia are no part of that body, because they are found to flourish unconnected with it, and even grow on many parts of the same grass, as seen in the anthers by Mr. Smith, of Kew Gar- dens, and observed by Mr. Queckett on the paleae, glumes and ra- chis ; therefore the ergot, Mr. Queckett conceives, originates by the grain of the respective grass becoming diseased, from the presence of a parasite, which occasions such alteration in its developement as to cause it to assume the well-known form, and to possess also the sin- gular properties manifested in that of rye.
If the ergot be sliced into thin transverse sections, and these ex- amined with a very high magnifying power, it will be seen that nu- merous particles escape from them when they are placed in water. These have been taken by Philippar for sporidia, from which cir- cumstance he considered the ergot as the reproductive apparatus of a fungus ; but such particles are only those of a fatty oil, which escape from the divided cells, and collect on the surface of the water, in which the sections are immersed, and differ from the sporidia of the exterior by floating on the surface, whilst the latter always sub- side to the bottom of the vessel containing the water. The appli- cation of heat to these supposed sporidia fuses them into irregular masses of diff^erent sizes ; and ether or turpentine, if allowed to eva- porate after being added to them, leaves similar appearances.
The internal structure of the ergot looks extremely irregular, there
Dec. 18, 1838.] lAnnean Society, 7
being no equally formed cells, but a confused jumble, out of which can scarcely be traced the true cells, on account of their boundaries being exceedingly sinuous, which structure is very like the centre of the fungus produced during the germination of the sporidia, and appears to be occasioned by fungoid matter having grown in the in- terior of the grain.
From these observations, which have been followed up in many ergotized grasses, Mr. Queckett is inclined to believe that the ergot is a grain diseased by a particular parasitic fungus developing in or about it, whose sporidia find the young state of the grain a matrix suitable for their growth, and quickly run their race, not entirely depriving it of its vitality, but communicating to it such impressions, which pervert its regular growth, and likewise the healthy formation of its constituents, being at last composed of its diseased mate- rials, which are mixed up with fungic matter, which has developed , within it.
The fungus caused to germinate in the way described is quite in- visible to the naked eye, seldom measuring beyond the one or two hundredth part of an inch ; and from comparisons with British and foreign genera of Fungacese, it has not been found that it belongs satisfactorily to any as at present constituted ; the author therefore proposes a new genus, with the title Ergot at ea, to represent this minute fungus, which will belong to the sub-order Coniomycetes of Fries, and to its division Mucedines, very near to the genus Sepe- donium.
After repeated experiments with the sporidia of the ergot of rye, of ElymuSy and other grasses, the author has always succeeded in making them germinate, and has not discovered such differences as would lead him to consider that the parasite in each case was not the same, therefore he has applied the term abortans, as the specific name of Ergotcetea, to the plant found on the ergot of rye, and be- lieves the parasites, on the other grasses which have been examined, to be of the same species.
December 18. Edward Forster, Esq., V. P., in the Chair.
Read, *' A notice of Cereus tetragonus,'* by Edward Rudge, Esq., F.R. & L.S.
This plant has blossomed during the three past years in Mr. Rudge's collection at Abbey Manor House near Evesham. The
S Lirinean Society. [Dec. 18, 1838.
flowers expand in the evening like those of C grandiftoi^s , which they resemble, but are Hot above half the size. The number of the angles of the stem is variable. The species is an old inhabitant of our stoves, but has rarely flowered.
Read, " Descriptions of the Indian species of IrisT by D. Don, Esq., Libr. L.S., Prof. Bot. King's College.
The number of species of this beautiful genus belonging to the Indian Flora is five, three of which have not been previously de- scribed : one of the species is from Cashmere, another from Ludak, a country situated beyond the Himalaya, and the remaining three are natives of Nepal and Kamaon, and of the country to the west- ward.
The following are the characters of the undescribed species :
1. /. kamaonensis (Wall. Cat. n. 5052.), barbata; scapo brevissimo uni- floro, tubo perianthii longissimo subfiliformi, sepalis interioribus bilo- bis longe unguiculatis, ovario turbinate 3-gono.
2. I. longifolia (Royle 111. t. 91. f. 2.), imberbis ; foliis margine scabris, scapo brevissimo unifloro, sepalis sublanceolatis integerrimis, tubo pe- rianthii vix uUo, ovario elongato triquetro scapum adsequante, stigma- tis lobis integerrimis.
3. /. Moorcrq/Vmwa (Wall. Cat. n. 5051.), imberbis ; scapo bifloropedun- culis breviore, spathis gluniaceis tubum perianthii superantibus, sepalis lanceolatis acutiusculis, ovario 6-sulcato.
Read, *' Additional observations on the Spongilla fluviatilis." By John Hogg, Esq., M.A., F.L.S.
The author's views of the vegetable nature of the river sponge were given in a paper read before the Society on the 5th of June, 1838, a report of which was inserted in the August number of the * Annals of Natural History.'
The present paper contains additional observations in confirmation of those views, derived from a more accurate examination of the seed-like bodies, which are found adhering in abundance to the walls of the cells or cavities of the sponge, and are also frequently free and endowed with the faculty of locomotion ; and which have been regarded by some authors as the ova of the Spongilla, and by others as those of the Plumatella. Mr. Hogg has determined the identity of these bodies, having succeeded in raising young Spongilla from both kinds ; and he has also ascertained that they are destitute of cilia, being merely studded with minute granular papillae. The mo- tions of the unattached bodies resemble those observed by linger in the sporules of Ectospora clavata, and Mr. Hogg considers the cur- rents to be due to the same causes, which affect the circulation of the fluids in the cells of vegetables.
Jan. 15, 1839.] Linnean Society. 9
January 15, 1839.
Edward Forster, Esq., V. P., in the Chair.
Major Thomas Best Jervis, E. I. C. Engineer Service; Thomas Bruges Flower, Esq., Bath ; J. C. Hall, Esq., Kensington ; R. M. Lingwood, Esq.^.A., Uckfield, Sussex ; and F. J. White, M.D., Warminster, were elected Fellows of the Society.
Read, " A notice of the Encephalartos horridus, which flowered at Kinmel Park." By Mr. Thomas Forrest. Communicated by the Secretary.
This brief notice was accompanied by the male spadix, which had flowered at Kinmel Park, the seat of Lord Dinorben, and was sent for exhibition to the meeting by command of His Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex. The plant had been sent to Lord Dinorben from the Cape of Good Hope about six years ago by Lord John Spencer Churchill, Capt. R.N. The spadix was of unusual size, and bore a strong resemblance to a gigantic pine cone. The most remarkable peculiarity observable was, that several scales, less developed than the others, bore only a single unilateral mass of anthers, whilst in others the two masses were scarcely confluent.
Read, '* An account of the Indian Species ai Juncus and Luzula." By D. Don, Esq., Libr.L.S., Prof. Bot. King's College.
The species described in this paper are all from Northern India, and were mostly collected by Dr. Royle in the range of the Hima- laya, included between the Ganges and Sutlej. Of the eight spe- cies described, seven belong to Juncus, and only one to Luzula. Three of the former genus are entirely new, two had been previously gathered by Dr. Wallich's collectors in Nepial, and of the two others, one (/. bufonius) is common throughout the northern hemisphere, and the other (/. glaucus) is abundant in northern and central Europe. The Luzula is spicata, which occurs on the mountains of the north of England, Scotland, and throughout Europe, reaching as high as 71" north latitude, and which is likewise found on the Caucasus and Altai mountains in northern Asia. The present va- riety is from Lippa in Kunawur, a country situated beyond the Himalaya, in about 31° 33'.north latitude, being about 11° more to the south than any station previously recorded for Luzula spicata. The variety differs in its broader sepals, blunt capsule, with obovate valves, and in the seeds not being above half the size.
No. II. — Proceedings of the Linnean Society.
10 Linnean Society, [Feb. 5^
We subjoin the characters of the new species.
1. /. leucanthus (Royle), culmo bifolio tereti, foliis margine invohitis filiformibus ailmum subaequantibus, capitulo terminali solitario 6 — 10- floro, involucre 5-phyllo ghimaceo floribus longiore, sepalis acutius- culis, antheris acutis filamentis duplo longioribus, ovario incluso, stig- matibus stylo ter brevioribus.
This species is nearly allied to /. triglumis.
2. J. leucomelas (Royle), culmo enodi filiformi aphyllo, foliis subulatis canaliculatis, capitulo terminali 3 — 5-floro involucro 3-phyllo acuto breviore, sepalis obtusis, antheris filamentorum fere longitudine, capsula acuminatjt perianthio longiore.
3. /. memhranaceus (Royle), culmo tereti subdiphyllo, foliis subfiliformi- bus obtusis, capitulo terminali solitario 4 — 8-floro bractea communi membranacea breviore, sepalis obtusis capsula acut^ longioribus, stami- nibus inclusis, antheris filamentis dilatatis ter brevioribus.'
4. /. concinnus (Don. Prodr. Fl. Nepal, p. 44), culmo tereti subdiphyllo, foliis planiusculis obtusis, capitulis 3 — 6-floris corymbosis, bractea communi elongata foliacea, sepalis acutis capsule acuta longioribus, staminibus longe exsertis, antheris filamentis simphcibus 6-pl6 brevi- oribus.
5. /. indicus, triandrus ; capitulis multifloris squarrosis trichotome cy- mosis, sepalis lineari-lanceolatis apice mucronatis recurvis capsulae mu- ticae longitudine, stigmatibus sessilibus.
February 5. Edward Forster, Esq., V. P., in the Chair.
J. J. Adams Esq., Surgeon, Finsbury Square, was elected a Fel- low of the Society.
Read, a paper entitled " A Note upon the Anatomy of the Roots of Ophrydecc:' By John Lindley, Ph. D., F.R. and L.S., Prof. Bot. University College.
The object of the author in this paper was to show that salep, the prepared roots of certain Ophrydece, is not a substance consisting principally of starch, as is the common opinion among writers of the present day, but is composed of a bassorine-like matter, organized in a peculiar manner.
After stating the opinions of recent authorities, the author gives the results of his own microscopical examination of the tissue of re- cent and prepared roots, by which it appears that the tubercles of Ophrydece universally contain large cartilaginous nodules of a muci-
1839.] Linnean Society, II
laginous substance, not coloured by iodine, and a small quantity of the grains of starch, lying in the usual manner in the parenchyma which surround the nodules, and readily susceptible to the usual ac- tion of iodine. The tubercles of many South- African Ophrydecc pre- sent when dried the appearance of bags filled with small pebbles, as if the epidermis had contracted over hard bodies in the inside. If a fresh root of Satyrium pallidum be divided transversely the cause of this appearance is explained, for with its soft parenchyma are mixed tough nodules, clear as water, and often twenty times as large as the cells which surround them. These nodules are easily separable, are tough like horn, and on being sliced appear to be perfectly homo- geneous. They are scarcely soluble in cold water; when boiled they become tumid and partially dissolve into a transparent jelly. If ex- posed to the air they rapidly dry and become brown, llie aqueous solution of iodine has no sensible effect upon them in their natural state.
On charring slices of some salep procured at Covent Garden, a coarse preparation of wild OphrydecB, the author found that the no- dules apparently homogeneous were composed of extremely minute transparent cells, filled, as he supposed, with a secretion of the same refractive power as themselves, and adhering naturally to each other firmly ; the double walls of the cells and intercellular spaces being only made apparent by the charring process. The author explains the error of those who have considered salep to consist chiefly of starch, by allusion to the mode of its preparation. The tubercles are first parboiled and then dried, the effect of which is to dissolve what starch exists in the cells surrounding the nodules. The dis- solved starch flows over the surface of the nodules, from which when dried it is undistinguishable, and consequently when iodine is ap- plied to salep the mass appears to become iodide of starch. If the nodules, however, after this action of iodine, be removed, they are seen to retain their original vitreous lustre.
The author remarks that these nodules of Ophrydete are, as far as his observations extend, absent in the tubercles of the other tribes of Orchidaceee.
Read, a paper entitled " Some Data towards a Botanioal Geogra- phy of New Holland." By Dr. John Lhotsky, late of the Civil Ser- vice, Van Diemen's Land. Communicated by Prof. Don, Libr. L.S.
The author commences his paper with the observation, that it was the lot of Mr. Brown to become connected in an almost exclusive way with the Flora of New Holland, he having been the first to illus-
12 LAmiean Society. [Feb. 5,
trate its vegetable riches in an extensive and philosophic manner. Notwithstanding the important discoveries since made, his re- marks, and especially those upon the botanical geography of that country, (published nearly twenty years ago,) have been confirmed by subsequent observations. The great approximation towards the European Flora, in that part of the country first explored by the author, agrees perfectly with the following observation of Mr. Brown : " It appears that a much greater proportion of the peculiarities of the Australian Flora exist in this, which I have therefore called the prin- cipal parallel (between 33° and 35° S. latitude), and that many of them are nearly confined to it.*" The author proposes the follow- ing geographical division of the Flora of the south-eastern part of New Holland.
1st. The coast vegetation. — This class of vegetation clothes the almost moveable sand of the coast, and the rocks of sandstone of the coal formation, or skirts the ponds of salt or brackish water. Epa- cris, Boronia, Lambertia, Astroloma, Xanthorrhaa, Hakea, Banksia, &.C. are the most characteristic genera, forming usually a dense shrubbery of stiff and harsh plants. Of trees, scarcely any but species of Eucalyptus are to be met with.
2nd. Vegetation of the rocky gullies near the sea coast. — Such lo- calities are generally characterized by small creeks or springs of fresh- water, of which the localities of the former class are mostly devoid. Two palms, Corypha australis and Seaforthia elegans, and the won- der of Australian forests, Dorymthes excelsa, adorn these localities.
3rd. The Argyle vegetation characterizes those park-like spots, with their stately Eucalyptus trees growing at some distance from each other, with very little underwood, which have attracted the notice of travellers, from Tasman down to those of our times. The geological features of this region consist of various rocks, the sandstone of the coal formation excepted, which last never yields a good soil. The genera of this class of vegetation are various grasses, Thlaspi,'Cera- stium, Thymus, Scandix, Hydrocotyle, Dianella, Exarrhena, Silene, Hypericum, &c., many of them European forms, and soft juicy plants. Where this vegetation occurs are to be found some of the most advantageous parts of the colony for the purposes of grazing.
4th. The Menero vegetation comprehends the Flora of those exten- sive downs which extend on the east side of the Alps to the extent of more than a hundred miles, and which are capable of maintaining vast numbers of sheep and other cattle. These downs present a dif-
* General remarks, geographical and systematical, on the Botany of Terra Australis, p. 586.
1839.] Linnean Society, 1$
ferent aspect in different seasons, being in some covered with the most luxuriant herbage, which at other times is parched and dried up. Many genera of the preceding class occur in these localities, besides Lythrum, Epilohium, Potentilla, Leuzea, Rumex, and other European genera. The author regrets that the season was too far advanced to examine the Graminea; and Cyperaceee, which abound in this region.
5th. Alpine vegetation. — This was traced by the author to the summit of Mount WiUiam the Fourth.* These mountains being very extensive, will yield a great harvest to future travellers. The few plants collected by the author in this first investigation were two species of Gentiana, Mniarum, Sphagnum, Dracophyllum, Azeroe, Co- prosma, Podolepis, some of the latter genus being three feet high.
February 19.
The Lord Bishop of Norwich, President, in the Chair.
Mr. George Dickie, of Aberdeen, was elected an Associate of the Society.
Read, ** Extracts from Letters addressed to Dr. Royle, V.P.R. & F.L.S., Prof. Mat. Med., King's College." By Dr. Falconer, Super- intendent of the Hon. E. I. C.'s Garden, Saharunpore.
Under date of January 24, 1837, from Saharunpore, Dr. Falconer gives a general report of the state of the garden.
*' The Bixa Orellana," he remarks, " now flowers and fruits freely. The umbelliferous flowered Panax, near the cinnamon tree, is now a large and lofty tree, and there are numbers of it all over the gar- den. The Bombay Mangoes and Leechees are abundant with us. The medicinal garden still gives the annual supply of Hyoscyamus, and the Canal nursery turns out about 2000 teaks. The Otaheite sugar cane, brought up by Colvin, is likely soon to spread all over the district ; it has succeeded famously here, and I have now in pre- paration about a couple of beegahs of ground outside the garden for it. I am also preparing for sowing about twenty beegahs with up- land Georgia cotton seed, which will undoubtedly be most success-
* According to a recent calculation, made from the degree of temperature at wliich water boiled on the top of this mountain (viz. 196°), it possesses an absolute height of SOOO feet, being by far the highest point reached hitherto by any traveller in Australia.
14 Linnean Society. [Feb. 19,
ftil ; it ripens before the Bourbon cotton comes into flower. Tliis last season I got a few pods of Egyptian cotton, of the garden growth ; the seed only reached me on the 15th of July, six weeks at the least too late, and it did not all ripen before the frosts, but what did ripen was long, fine, and strong in the staple, and the pods large. I expect to have a better account of it at the end of this season. I have also some Peruvian seed to experiment on.
** The herbarium has been largely added to. The family of all others that has yielded most additions perhaps is the Orchideee. There are upwards of thirty epiphytous species growing on the trees in the garden, and many more in the herbarium ; some of them are most interesting additions : one of them is a triandrous Dendrobium, D. normcUe, Fal. The three anthers are not the only singularity about it. The flower is perfectly regular ; the three sepals being exactly equal, as are also the three petals, which, although of the same length, are twice as broad as the sepals. The column is also symmetrical, and as there is no labellum, it is difficult when the flower is removed from the axis to find out which of the petals re- presents the lip. Further, and what is most interesting of all, it clearly shows what is the normal position of the supplementary an- thers in the family. Lindley makes them alternate with the lateral petals ; while Brown, from the structure of Apostasia and Cypripe- dium, states that they alternate with the lateral sepals, and belong to a diff'erent whorl from the fertile anther. In my plant it is most distinctly evident, both by a decurrent ridge on each filament and by transverse sections of the column at all heights down to its base, that the supplementary anthers have the same relative position as the usual fertile one, and in harmony with Lindley's for- mula. Further, I have another variety of the species, in which the column is sliced ofi^ in front as is usual in the genus, and then the labellar petal is invariably developed into a spurred lip, so that it would appear that in the family the irregularity of the lip is a state of anamorphosis consequent on the imperfect development of the column, or vice versd ; in fact, that the deficiency of the one is abs- tracted to make up the excess of the other. Next I discovered an- other genus of the tribe Gastrodice, with a monophyllous perianth, the segments, sepals and petals being united for two-thirds of their length into a tube. I found it on Dhunoultee, and have called it Gamo- plexis ; it has the habit and look of an Orobanche, I have found also a magnificent Malaxideous genus, standing, when in flower, 9 feet. You never saw a more superb affair, with rich yellow flowers like the Cyrtopera. I have called it Thysanochilus. The seed-vessel
1839.] Linnean Society. 15
has no ribs, and in one flower of it I found a plurality of stamens. I have several other new genera, which it would tire you to de- scribe. Talking of Dhunoultee, I found Wallich's Fraxinus flori- bunda growing on the ridge half-way between it and Landour, close to the road. You remember the description you give of the irregu- larity of the Paris polyphylla in Wallich's Plantae Asiaticae, — I found the Podophyllum Emodi growing intermixed with it, and strange to say, as if bewitched with the same turn for vagaries, with every number of stamens from 6 to 10, and in almost every flower one filament bearing two anthers, and that filament invariably the one opposite the petiole of the flower-bearing leaf. In one flower I found the following irregularities : 6 petals, 10 anthers, 7 filaments, or stamens if you like ; on one filament 3 anthers, on another 2, and the remaining 5 regular. Singular that it and the Paris should grow together and both so irregular."
Under date of January 26, 1838, from Cashmere, whither he had proceeded on a Botanic mission in connexion with Sir Alex. Burnes's Expedition, Dr. F. says, " I am now wintering in Cashmere, with the prospect before me of pushing across through Little Thibet towards the Kuenlun Mountains when the snow clears. I started from Loodiana, where, by the by, I got the Butomus umhellatus in flower and fruit, new, I believe, to the plains of India ; and after a few days at Lahore, I marched on through the Punjab to Attock in the month of July ; no rains and fearful heat in the sandy plains I went along. From the want of rain and my route being through an open plain I did not glean much in my march. The Flora is exactly that of the neighbourhood of Delhi; Peganum Harmala everywhere, with Capparidea, Crotolaria Bushia, Calotropis Hamiltonii, Alhagi Maurorum, Tamarix, Acacia modesta, &c. &c. Near Lahore I got what I believe to be anew Asclepiadeous genus exactly intermediate between Calotropis and Paratropis, with the angular and saccate sinued corolla, membrane lipped anthers and corona of the former, but the coronal leaflets cleft and the pollen masses oval and ventricose as in the latter, with other peculiar cha- racters besides. It is a low, twining, small, fleshy, lance- leaved under- shrub. I have called it provisionally jBM^ro/?i5. It is in great abundance in the Punjab. I met with the Dhak (Buteafrondosa) as far as the west- ern bank of the Jhelum. The Flora begins to change atRawulPindee, which is elevated and continuous so on to the plain of Chuch, along the banks of the Attock. Here I first came on the famous Zuetoon,
the wild olive, Olea ? and further on, at Hussan Abdal, I found
Himalayan Rubi and a Cashmeer Dianthus, white flowered and new
16 Linnean Society, [Feb. 19,
to you. Near Attock I joined the party, having marched hitherto alone. We halted at Attock, the dry arid hills of which have a pecu- liar vegetation. We crossed the noble Indus at Attock ; a fearful ferry, in the rains the river running eight knots an hour. The lower part of the plain of Peshawur, where we now were, is sandy, and has exactly the Flora of the arid tracts of the Punjab ; Salsolas, Chenopodea, Alhagi, Calotropis, Peganum, Tamarix, &c. But when we got to Peshawur, so much do the seasons differ that i)eaches were coming into fruit the 15th of August, and the Kurreel {Cap- paris aphylla) out of flower only lately. From Peshawur I made an excursion to Cohaut, and from thence to the Salt Hills and the valley of Rungush. In the Salt Hills I got a Stapeliaceous Asclepiad, unfortunately neither in flower nor fruit, very probably one of Wight's Carallumas or Boucerosias. Also the Cassia obovata, the Egyptian senna in flower. I had previously got the same plant from near Delhi, no doubt about the species ; certainly not the ohtusa of Roxb. ; the legumes always crested over the bulge of the seeds. I got numerous other plants. From Peshawur Burnes started for Cabul, and Mackeson and I for Cashmeer. From Attock, Mackeson went by the straight militar}'- road, as he was on a military survey, while I made an attempt to run up the Indus into the hills. I got on three marches and was forcibly stopped at Durbund (look at Burnes's map) and threatened with rather rough usage. I then turned across the hills and rejoined my companion in the noble valley of Huzara. The vege- tation along the banks of the Indus from Attock to Durbund surprised me much. It is quite that of the characteristic forms of the Deyra Dhoon, and taking difference of latitude and altitude into account, with the great distance westward, this might not have been looked for ; Grislea tomentosa, Rottlera tinctoria, Hastingia coccinea, Acacia Ca- techu, Holostemma, &c. On the banks of the Indus, in the valley lead- ing up to Cashmeer from Huzara, I found the Dodonoea Burmanniana. You remark in your notice of the. Sapindacea its absence from the Bengal and Hindoostan region. Its occurrence with a leap further north is remarkable. From Huzara we marched on by the Paklee road to Mosufferabad. Near Drumbur I came on the Hovenia dulcis. At Mosufferabad I got on a high ridge, and followed it on to Cash- meer, where we arrived early in October. It was now too late in the season to exhaust the Flora of the valley and neighbourhood, so I made up my mind to winter here and make a fresh start in spring. It would take pages to contain what I have observed about the Flora here, late as I came. It has several anomalies ; few if any oaks de- scend on the northern side of the Peerpunjal into the valley. I have
1839.] Linnean Society, 17
not seen one yet. I have selected oaks as a very characteristic type. The same holds with respect to the plants that are associated with the oaks, &c. about Mussourie. In the lake you see Nelumbium and Euryaleferox, growing dlon^vfiXh. Menyanthes trifoliata\ and cotton, a poor sort, growing on the banks, while the sides of the bounding hills are skirted with pines. I got Staphylea Emodi grow- ing along with Ribes Grossuiaria (your Himalense ?), while it grows as you know at Mussourie on low slopes near Budraj. The Prurigos pabularia grows in the valley. I found it most abundant on Ahatoong, a low trap hill on the valley, but it is not so vigorous a plant as in its Thibetian habitat. I expect in the summer to get as far north as lat. 36° at the least on the Kuenlun or Kara Korun range, a most desirable tract to explore, as it will be clear beyond Hima- layan vegetation, partly characteristic of that of central Asia. I have already seen enough to convince me from a trip to the Thibet frontier to near Durass, that the Flora ahead will bear a close re- semblance in many general relations to that of the Altai Mountains shown by Ledebour and yourself."
" Deosir, Cashmeer, June 20, 1838.
" I have written to you twice from Cashmeer. I have been going leisurely all round the valley, and into all the subordinate valleys which radiate on all sides from the great one. I have made many acquisitions. Among Ranunculacece I have got species of Hepatica, Ceratocephalus, and Callianthemum, all of which I believe to be new, and making up the very blanks you notice in your ' Illustrations.* Of Callianthemum, I have no knowledge, besides your quotation, but my plant has leaves with umbelliferous habit, 8 white strap-shaped clawed petals, with the nectariferous pore high up on the claw, and a pendulous ovulum. It cannot therefore be a Ranunculus, nor your R. pimpinelloides. Further, I have got anew Ranunculaceous genus, new unless Jacquemont has got it, having the habit of Trollius in its leaves and mode of inflorescence, 8 herbaceous sepals, 24 strap- shaped petals, plane with no fovea at the claw, and solitary trans- versely attached ovula, being neither pendulous nor erect. It forms a transition from Adonis to the Ranunculece. This is another blank filled up in the desiderata so pointedly mentioned by you. I have called the genus Chrysocyathus^ It grows intermixed with Trollius, ' inter nives deliquescentes,' and till I examined it I took it for a Trollius. I have got a new species of Adoxa, forming I believe the second of the genus, A. inodora (mihi), a larger plant than the A. Moschatellina, and with the lateral flower 12-androus, and
No. III. — Proceedings of the Linxean Society.
18 JAnnean Society . [Feb. 19,
6 segments in the flowers. I have also a new Epimedium, a large handsome leaved herb, E. hydaspidis (mihi), and two species o{ Al- chemilla. Fritillaria imperialis, the Crown Imperial of English gardens, grows wild in the lofty shady forests of Cashmeer. The Cashmerees regard it to be unlucky, and grow it only near musjids and over graves. Fothergilla involucrata (mihi), belonging to the Hamamelideee, exists in vast abundance in Cashmeer, forming whole tracts of low jungle ; — strange that it should not have been brought before either to you or to me. It occupies the place that the hazel {Corylus Avellana) does in England, and at a little distance does not look unlike it. Thus, Hamamelidece are found at opposite ends of the Himalaya range, Bucklandia and Sedgwickia in Assam, and Fothergilla in Cash- meer, but none of the family have yet been met with in the interme- diate tracts. Prang OS pabularia I have found in vast abundance in several directions, but the Cashmerees do not know it for any useful purpose, except as a plant highly prized by Europeans. They some- times use the roots to destroy worms, by steeping them in Dhaun fields as Calamus {hutch) is used in Hindoostan. The UmbelUfera have not come into fruit yet, so I do not know much of my new ac- quisitions, but I have got among others a species of Turgenia, a genus which I believe is new to the Himalayas. My brother wrote me that you were inquiring about Koot and Amomum. Koot is ex- ported from Cashmeer : it is a plant of the natural family of Compo^ sitce, which has not yet come into flower, but I shall let you know about it hereafter. Amomum, Humama, or Amamoon, is not known in Cashmeer nor to be had at the Piensarees. I have got a magni- ficent species of Ornithogallum ?, with a scape 7 feet high : the Cash- merees call it Prustereen, and prize it highly as a culinary vegetable. I have had Dodonaa brought to me from above Jummos in the heart of the hills, growing along the banks of the Chenab. I mentioned to you in a former letter some of the anomalies I had met with in the absence of forms common elsewhere ; not an oak, nor Andromeda, Rhododendron arboreum, Mahonia nepalensis, &c., have I yet found, though so common in the hills elsewhere. I have got Sparganium {carinatum, mihi), Butomus and Villarsia Nymphoides from the jhils. A species of Sagittaria is used here as a Cashmeree Salep, the natives collecting the roots as in China. The Coniferce are, as to the east- ward, 3 pines, 2 or 3 firs and Deodar, but I have not seen the Cu- pressus torulosa, the lofty cypress of the Mussourie hills."
1839.] Linnean Society. 19
March 5 .
Edward Forster, Esq., V.P., in the Chair.
Read, " Observations on some Fungi or Agarici, which by de- liquescence form an inky fluid, drying into a bister-coloured mass, capable of being used as a water-colour for drawings, and of a very indestructible nature by means of common agencies." By John Redman Coxe, M.D., formerly Professor of Materia Medica in the University of Pennsylvania. Communicated by the Secretary.
Dr. Coxe having gathered a Fungus and placed it on a sheet of white paper, leaving it until the next day, found several drops of an inky fluid, slowly trickling from the inner surface, which had as- sumed a black appearance ; by placing the Fungus in a glass, the whole except the outer skin liquefied. The colour of the fluid was rather a deep bister than black, and being left in the glass, in a few hours it separated into a solid sediment, with a lighter coloured fluid swimming above. Having afterwards collected a considerable quan- tity of fluid from the same species, he obtained by drying an extract of a pretty deep black colour of both parts conjoined, which would otherwise have separated. This on trial formed an admirable bister- like water-colour, well adapted for drawing when mixed with a little gum.
Dr. Coxe used the " fresh inky fluid as ink, and from such fresh fluid the accompanying drawings were made ;" but it was soon found that its change was too rapid to think of depending on it for such a purpose, he therefore was led to dry it as quickly as possible by spontaneous evaporation, and then to use it diluted with water. Having exposed various portions of writing thus made to the direct rays of the sun for several months with little change, he tried the eff'ects of chlorine and euchlorine gas, muriatic acid, and ammoniacal gases : from these but a trifling change ensued, except from the mu- riatic acid gas, which destroyed very considerably the dark tint of the writings. He also placed some small and recent specimens of the Fungus in a solution of corrosive sublimate, which preserved them and prevented any deliquescence : the same eff^ect was produced by alcohol.
The ink is fully formed and escapes in about three or four days. When received into a phial, in a short time the heavier and blacker matter was found to settle as a sediment ; the lighter brownish amber- coloured fluid surmounts it, and may be poured off" from it to dry them
20 Linnean Society. [March 5,
separately. From a good sized specimen nearly half an ounce of fluid has been obtained.
The following chemical experiments among others were made : —
1. Two drachms of the fluid added to J 1 of hydrate gave a clear brown transparent solution, to which in separate glasses was added
2. Nitrate of Silver : no effect at first, but in a few minutes dark brown flocculi subsided, leaving a transparent fluid above.
3. Muriate of Barytes : no efi^ect at first, finally a subsidence of dark brown flocculi.
4. Acetate of Lead. Immediate dark brown flocculi, leaving a clear liquid above.
5. Carbonate of Potash. Transparency destroyed ; a trifling brown deposit in a few hours.
6. Alcohol. No apparent change from it.
7. Solution of Corrosive Sublimate. An apparent diflfiision of brown- ish hue, gradually subsiding in dirty brown flocculi.
8. Dilute Muriatic Acid. The same, but much smaller in amount.
10. Lime Water. Light brown flocculi in a few hours.
1 1 . Liquor Ammonia. No efi^ect.
12. Succinate of Ammonia. Deep brown deposit in a few hours.
13. Prussiate of Potash. No eff"ect.
14. Oxalate of Ammonia. Clouds form and settle in a dirty brown sediment.
From these experiments Dr. Coxe is disposed to think that an ex- cellent India Ink might be prepared for drawing ; perhaps its dried deposit mixed with oil might answer for engravings ; and as an ink, indestructible from any common agents, it might be well to try it in the filling up of bank notes and other papers of consequence, as he believes it cannot be extracted by any means without destroying the paper itself.
The Fungus described, and on which the above experiments were tried, is referred with some hesitation to Agaricus ovatus, Schseff^er, ' Icones Fungorum,' fig. 7. A. cylindricus, fig. 8. A. porcellaneus, fig. 46. and 47. The drawings are named Agaricus ovatus"*".
• The drawings evidently represent Agaricus fmetarius, Linn, and Curtis; A. comatus, Mull, and Berkeley ; A. cylindricus, Sowerby ; to which A. cy- lindricus, Schaeff. f.8. and A. porcellaneus, figs. 46 & 47. belong; it is not so clear that A. ovatus, fig. 7. (the name adopted by Dr. Coxe) does. In the subgenus named by Berkeley Coprinus every species is deliquescent. Curtis observes, under his A. ovatus, which is A. atramentarius. Bull, and Berk., that the seeds may he seen in the black liquor if magnified.
1839.] Linnean Society, 21
ft
March 19. Edward Forster, Esq., V. P., in the Chair.
Robert John Ashton, Esq., Brompton; Patrick Leigh Strachan, Esq., of the Civil Service, Sierra Leone; and Alfred White, Esq., Islington, were elected Fellows of the Society.
Read, " A Notice of the Birds of Iceland, accompanied by speci- mens." By George Townshend Fox, Esq., F.L.S.
It is perhaps not generally known that the Durham University has established a Museum as one of the necessary appendages of an academical institution ; the subcurator of which, Mr. Wm. Proctor, requested and obtained permission to go out to Iceland in the summer of 1837 to procure a collection of the birds of that island. Three months were passed on the most northern part of Iceland, this local- ity being chosen by Mr. Proctor as one least visited by naturalists, and therefore the most likely to repay his labours by the number or rarity of the specimens to be obtained. Skins of fifty-two species of birds were brought home, besides skins of six Rein Deer, three spe- cies of Seals, two large Fishes (Anarrhicas), and a Porpoise,
Frederick Faber in his Ornithology of Iceland, published at Copen- hagen in 1822, enumerates eighty-four species of birds; of which about twenty are land birds, and sixty water birds. Faber adopted the nomenclature of Linnaeus, but an examination of the skins brought home by Mr. Proctor has led to the belief that several of Faber's birds are not identical with the Linnean species. The Iceland Falcon is considered by Mr. Hancock* as distinct from the whiter falcon of Greenland. The Iceland Grouse is correctly considered by Faber as peculiar to that island. The Bridled Guillemot, Uria lacrymans, Lapyl., is for various reasons believed to be a species distinct from the Common Guillemot, Uria Troile, Lath. Clangula Barrovii was found breeding on the ground in a nest formed of its own down, and placed among aquatic plants a little above high- water mark. Some rare eggs were also obtained, namely, those of the Iceland Falcon, Little Auk, Bridled Guillemot, and Sclavonian * Grebe.
Read also a paper, "On the Structure and Development of the Reproductive organs of Pihlaria glohuliferay In a letter to
* See Mr. Hancock's paper on this subject in the * Annals of Natural History,' vol. ii. p. 241.
i2 Linnean Society. [March 19,
R. H. Solly, Esq., F.R.S. and L.S. By William Valentine, Esq., F.L.S.
The author observes, that the involucrum of Pilularia globulifera contains two kinds of bodies, which, however, occupy distinct sacs ; one kind are round, very numerous, and minute, not larger than the 460th part of an inch ; they are found principally in the upper part of the involucrum, and are about forty in each sac. The other kind are of an oblong pyriform shape, a little constricted near the middle, with a conical projection at one extremity, and are much less nu- merous, about sixty, and occur singly in each sac ; they are about the 80th part of an inch broad, and have the power of germination, which the former kind do not appear to possess. Both kinds are loose in their sacs, and have an opake, pure white, minutely granular, testaceous covering, and are imbedded in a kind of gelatin, which softens and expands by the action of water, but is not completely dissolved. The larger bodies, the undoubted sponiles, after a very slight maceration in water, (less than a minute is sufficient,) are en- veloped by a well-defined covering of gelatinous matter, which be- fore the maceration existed in a concrete state. Further macera- tion does not appear to affect this gelatinous covering, as it remains unchanged long after germination, and gives to the sporule the ap- pearance of having a very delicate transparent border, whose breadth is about the 4th part of .the diameter of the sporule.
The sporule consists of three coats, the outer of which is white, opake, somewhat brittle, more or less incomplete at the conical ex- tremity, but much thickened about the upper third of the sporule, where it exhibits traces of cellularity. The middle coat iS mem- branous, elastic, of a light yellowish brown colour, and perforated at the apex of the conical projection which is essentially formed by this coat, the outer coat being gradually lost upon its surface, or in some instances being scarcely continued on to it, in which case the sporule appears truncated, the middle membrane not having sufficient firmness of itself to support the conical form. This conical projec- tion is more or less plicated, and in those instances in which the outer coat is very deficient the middle membrane exhibits lines radiating from the aperture. The third coat, or internal membrane, is similar in colour to the middle, differing from it however in being inelastic, and not being continued into the cone, but forming a short cavity, by passing directly across the base of the cone, at which point it is not in contact with either of the other membranes, and is marked by three lines, which radiate from the centre of the unsupported portion, and indicate a valvular structure to allow of the protrusion
1839.] lAnnean Society. 23
of the growing matter in germination. The cavity of the sporule is occupied by a quantity of grumous fluid and particles, which are of various sizes, the larger ones being mostly of an ovoid shape, but altering by pressure.
I found many of these sporules in a germinating state, the major- ity having escaped from the involucrum, but in several instances I found them considerably advanced in germination before the rupture of the involucrum and whilst they were yet inclosed in their sacs. The first external sign of germination is either the appearance of four cells projecting through the apex of the conical projection or a general swelling of that part. By dissection, however, we can observe this process at an earlier period, and I find upon re- moving the conical projection that the first evidence of germination having commenced is an appearance of cellularity within the unsup- ported or valved portion of the internal membrane, which is transpa- rent ; and I now find for the first time a very delicate pellucid mem- brane lining the whole cavity of the sporule, and having the cells which give the appearance just mentioned either lying on its exter- nal surface or forming that portion of it which lies beneath the valves. From the appearances and impossibility of separating the cells from the membrane I am inclined to believe that the cavity formed by this membrane is completed by the cells, or, in other words, that the sac is partly membranous and partly cellular. It is possible that this last described membrane may exist before germination begins, notwithstanding the numerous unsuccessful dissections which I have made to discover it, the failure being owing to its extreme de- licacy ; but I am pretty well satisfied that it is a product of germi- nation, because I have not the slightest difl[iculty in demonstrating it after that has commenced, nor is there the slightest trace of it in any stage of the development of the sporule. However this may be, it is quite certain that fresh cells are gradually formed on the external surface of the cellular part of the sac, and that the valves of the third membrane are very soon ruptured and gradually turned back by the growth and protrusion of this button-like cellular germ. The enlarging cellular mass then distends the conical projection, unfolding the plicae of that body, and at length appears externally, with four of its cells projecting beyond the general mass and com- pressed into a quadrangular form, I fancy by the pressure of the apex of the cone, the aperture in which is quadrangular. These projecting cells soon harden and acquire a reddish brown hue, and in the ad- vanced stage of germination ajipear like a brown quadrangular space, which I should have little hesitation in referring to the above cause
24 Linnean Society. [March 19,
did I not find several similar spaces on the germinating sporules of Isoetes lacustris, which I could not refer to such an origin : it must be observed however that I have not seen the earlier stages of germi- nation in Isoetes. Soon after the exposure of the entire germ, which is effected by the reflexion of the valves and conical membrane over the side of the sporule, where they lie quite concealed by the germ, little fibrillse or rootlets begin to shoot from one side. They are simply articulated tubes or elongated cells applied end to end with frequently a bulbous extremity, and each is produced from one of the cells of the germ. They differ much in length in different sporules ; in some they are not longer than the sporule, whilst in others they are three or four times that length, and, in common with the cells of the germ, contain granules which in these are colourless but in the germ green. The cluster-like appearance of the cells which form the germ, soon after the appearance of these librillse be- gin to change, the cells becoming flatter and more intimately con- nected with each other. At the same time an internal change is taking place, for by a gradual arching or receding upwards of that part of the germ which closes the cavity of the sporule the germ becomes hollow, the hollow communicating "with the cavity of the sporule, which is of course proportionably enlarged. The germ now gra- dually points in two places, which are by no means fixed, but occur in various situations according to the position of the sporule in rela- tion to the light. The direction of the first leaf is generally in the direction of the axis of the sporule, or rather a little inclined, and that of the first root at right angles or lateral, but very soon chan- ging to an opposite direction to that of the leaf. This would be the constant direction if the sporules were always left to themselves free from entanglements, on account of the peculiar structure of their outer coats ; the spongy fibro-cellular texture of the superior third of which, causing that end to be the most buoyant in the water, ex- poses the superior surface of the germ to the direct action of the light ; but as it cannot always happen that the sporules should be free, the direction of the leaf and root is sometimes quite the reverse, and at others both leaf and root are lateral, but proceeding from opposite sides of the germ. These two jioints gradually lengthen, and if dissected each will be found to consist of a closed sheath, con- taining in one instance the leaf, in the other the root in the form of a conical process like a finger in a glove. The young leaf, which is taper and its cells crowded with green granules, being in advance of the root, which is obtuse and destitute of green granules, bursts through the summit of its sheath when it has become rather longer
1839.] Linnean Society. U5
than the sporule, whilst the root, although more backward in its de- velopment, pierces its sheath before it is as long as the sporule. The sheaths are not distinct, but communicate with each other ; and the only point of connexion between the sheath (there being in fact but one) and the germ is around its base close to the sporule, so that nearly the whole of the germ is inclosed in this sheath. Besides this sheath which embraces the upper part of the root, there is an exceedingly delicate expansion, which so closely embraces the ex- tremity of the root like a cap, that it is only by a careful examina- tion that it can be discovered. I am not aware that this has ever had any connexion with the sheath through which the root bursts, but, on the contrary, I believe it to be a distinct formation. After the leaf has grown many times the length of the sporule, or about 2 lines long, another leaf grows from the germ close to the first, to which it is in all respects similar, and then a bud begins to be de- veloped from some indefinite part of the germ, but like the leaves and root from within the sheath, which is now frequently much lace- rated. This bud is covered by a peculiar kind of jointed hairs, whose attachments are lateral, at a short distance from their bases, and they contain a few colourless granules. This bud sometimes appears after the first leaf, in which case there is no second primordial leaf formed, and is the rudimentary stem, the first growth from it being a leaf which exhibits, although in a small degree, the first evidence of gyration, and shortly after a root which is furnished with its own sheath. As I have not seen more advanced specimens, I am unable to describe the succeeding steps; but as, up to this point, my obser- vations were made upon several hundred examples, I may safely aflirm that the instances were sufficiently numerous for my purpose. All the leaves after the primordial ones, or those which grow direct from the germ, are developed in a similar manner to ferns, and even the running stem partakes in a slight degree of the same gyrate evo- lution. The roots are all formed in sheaths, through the apices of which they ultimately burst ; the sheath continuing to embrace the base of the root, whilst a distinct and far more delicate sheath closely embraces its point. Transverse sections of the stem, root, and leaves show them all to be hollow with the cavity divided longi- tudinally into separate channels. In the stem these longitudinal par- titions are about fifteen or sixteen in number, and in the leaf and root they are about ten or twelve, which in the latter £ure arranged in pairs. These partitions radiate from a central column of enlarged cells which surround a bundle of minutely dotted ducts that may be unrolled spirally, and the channels between these partitions are fro-
26 Linnean Society. [March 19,
quently divided by transverse partitions or diaphragms. The cells which form these partitions are curiously arranged — they are flat- tened on two opposite sides, and connected with each other by their narrow sides and extremities, but only at intervals, so that there are numerous holes formed which aiFord a free communication between all the channels. In the partitions of the root the intervening holes are so large in proportion to the breadth of the cells that these have the appearance of a string of beads. Another peculiarity of the root is, that, in addition to the diaphragms formed of this tissue, which are also found in the stem and leaf, a peculiar body is fre- quently met with occupying a similar position to the diaphragms. These bodies (for they are sometimes numerous) are each formed of one or more cylindrical cells coiled up in a gyrate manner. They grow from the angle formed by the partition and the cuticle, and are developed subsequent to the other tissue, for they may be found in various stages of advancement in the same root. Their nature I have not been able to ascertain.
The author then proceeds to describe the development of the spo- rules. A transverse section of the involucrum when about the size of a small pin's head shows it to consist of four integuments, con- taining a mass of very delicate spongy compressible cellular tissue, subdivided into four equal triangular portions by four lines radiating from the centre. In the centre of each of these portions is a cavity, and projecting into each of these cavities are a number of nipple - like processes which are attached in each cavity to a common recep- tacle, whilst this again is connected with an open rigid cellular tissue that lies between the spongy tissue before described and the involucrum, and serves as a connexion between the two. As the involucrum advances, the spongy tissue recedes all round the four cavities, which consequently become larger and afford more space for the growth of the nipple-like processes. This recession of the spongy tissue is not caused by the pressure of the growing pro- cesses, for it is frequently in advance of them ; but it is produced by a gradual condensation inherent to the tissue around the cavities and along the radiating dividing lines, which, in fact, are nothing more than this condensation, which at maturity is so complete that the whole of the spongy tissue is condensed into four dissepiments, dividing the cavity of the involucrum into four equal loculi. The nipple-like processes are found upon a careful examination to be hollow sacs with obscurely cellular walls — those which occupy the lowest part of the involucrum being considerably in advance of the upper ones. These sacs contain a quantity of grumous matter, and
1839. J Linnean Society, 2J
a number, perhaps about ten, of soft rather opake pulpy bodies, which are evidently compounded of four closely connected parts so placed on each other as to form a cone with a triangular base.
April 2.
The Lord Bishop of Norwich, President, in the Chair.
Henry Bingley, Esq., Queen's Assay Master, Royal Mint ; Joseph Dickinson, M.B., Lecturer on Botany at the Philosophical Institu- tion, Liverpool ; George Everett, Esq., Clapham ; and John Miers, Esq., Chelsea, were elected Fellows of the Society.
Mr. Owen read. a Paper on a New Species of the genus Lepido- siren of Fitzinger and Natterer. The author commenced by advert- ing to the first announcement of that anomalous animal, the Lepido- siren paradoxa, as the type of a new genus of Perennibranchiate Reptiles by Fitzinger at the meeting of the German naturalists at Prague in 1837, and to its subsequent description by its discoverer Dr. Natterer, the well-known South American traveller.
With the generic characters assigned by these able German na- turalists to their Lepidosiren, the species described by Mr. Owen fully and closely agreed ; but it differed specifically in the greater relative length of the head and rudimental extremities, and its much smaller size.
Mr. Owen observed, that since the time of the discovery of the Ornithorhynchus there had not been submitted to naturalists a spe- cies which proved more strongly the necessity of a knowledge of its whole organization, both external and internal, in order to arrive at a correct view of its real nature and affinities, than did the Lepidosiren, and as he had felt a reluctance to bring before the Society an in- complete description, w^hich might only have served to raise new doubts in the minds of naturalists with regard to this animal, he had deferred since June 1837 the completion and communication of the present paper. He had however at that time prepared a brief descrip- tion of the specific characters of the specimen in question, under the name of Protopterus, and had referred it in the Catalogue of the Museum of the College of Surgeons to the Class of Fishes, on ac- count of its scaly covering and the condition of its nostrils as plicated sacs, and to the abdominal family of the Malacopterygian order' of that class, in which it seemed to present an extreme modification
28 Linnean Society. [April 2>
or rudiraental condition of the fins indicative of a transition from the abdominal to the apodal families.
The anatomical details which formed the principal part of the pre- sent communication, confirmed the propriety of referring the LepU dosiren to the class of fishes ; but they also led, Mr. Owen observed, to a considerable extension in his original views of its affinities in that class.
A minute description was then given of the external characters and peculiarities of the present species, which differed from the Le- pidosiren paradox a in the greater relative length of the head and ru- dimental fins as compared with that of the trunk ; and in its general size, which is three-fourths smaller.
The chief peculiarities of the skeleton consist in its imperfect, or rather partial ossification, and in the green colour of the ossified parts ; in which it resembles that of the gar-pike (Belone vulgaris). The parts which continue permanently in the cartilaginous condition are the petrous elements of the temporal bones containing the acoustic labyrinth, a portion of the articular pedicle of the lower jaw, the branchial arches, and the bodies of the vertebrae : these, moreover, are not separated to correspond with the neurapophyses and ribs, as in Plagiostomous Cartilaginous Fishes, but retain their primitive con- fluent condition as a round continuous chord, extending from the oc- ciput to the end of the tail : this vertebral chord consists of an ex- ternal firm, elastic, yellowish capsule, enveloping a softer subgelati- nous material, as in the Cyclostomous Fishes. The corresponding parts or basilar elements of the cranial vertebrae were ossified : and Mr. Owen then entered upon a detailed description of the skull.
The ribs are thirty- six pairs, and consist of short, slightly curved, slender styles, encompassing, with the spine, about one-sixth part of the cavity of the abdomen. These ribs are attached to the lower part of the side of the fibrous sheath of the central vertebral chord ; their pointed free extremities are cemented to the intermuscular ligaments.
The superior spines are throughout separated from the neurapo- physes, and these are not anchylosed together at their upper extre- mities. Hsemapophyseal spines are developed in the caudal region, and both these and the neurapophyseal spines have articulated to them dermo-osseous spines, of equal length, with their distal extre- mities expanded, and supporting the transparent elastic horny rays of the caudal fin. . The rudimental filiform pectoral and ventral fins were supported each by a single cartilaginous ray composed of many joints.
The muscles of the head, jaws, hyoid and branchial apparatus
1839.] Linnean Society, 29
were then described : the muscular system of the body consists of subvertical layers of oblique fibres separated at brief intervals by aponeurotic intersections.
The following peculiarities of the Digestive system were then pointed out ; — two long, slightly curved, slender, sharp-pointed teeth project from the intermaxillary bones, which are moveable. The upper maxillary bones support each a single dental plate divi- ded into three cutting lobes, by two oblique notches entering from the outer side : the lower jaw is armed with a single dental plate si- milarly modified, the produced cutting edges fitting into the notches above : these maxillary teeth somewhat resemble the dental plate of the extinct Ceratodus of Agassiz. The fleshy and sensitive parts of the tongue are more developed than in fishes generally. The jaws are adapted to minutely divide and comminute alimentary substances; the pharyngeal opening is contracted ; the entrance to the pharynx guarded by a soft semicircular valvular process. Gullet short, straight, narrow, but longitudinally plicated. Stomach simple, straight, with thick walls, in capacity corresponding with the oesophagus ; termi- nating by a valvular pylorus projecting with a scalloped margin into the intestine. No pancreas or spleen. Liver well-developed, partly divided into two lobes. A gall-bladder, and large ductus choledochus, opening by a valvular termination close to the pylorus. Intestine round, straight, at first of equal diameter with the stomach, but gra- dually contracting to the vent, with thick parietes ; traversed inter- nally by a spiral valve describing six gyrations ; the first of which is the longest.
The respiratory organs consist of branchiae, and a double elon- gated air-bladder, with the usual vascular and cellular structure of the lungs of a reptile.
The branchice consist of elongated, sub-compressed, soft, pendu- lous filaments, attached to cartilaginous branchial arches; these arches are not joined together, or to the os hyoides by an interme- diate chain of cartilages or bones below, nor are they articulated to the cranium above. There are six branchial arches on each side, and five intervals for the passage of the water from the mouth to the branchial sac. All the branchial arches do not support branchial filaments ; but only the first, fourth, fifth, and sixth. The first and last branchial arches each support a single row, the fourth and fifth each a double row of branchial filaments. The second and third branchial arches have their full proportions, but offer not the slight- est trace of gills. The branchial sac is pretty large, and opens ex.< ternally by a small vertical fissure immediately anterior to the ru- dimental pectoral extremities.
30 Linhean Society. [A])ril 2,
The heart is situate below the oesophagus, in a strong pericardium ; it consists of a single auricle and ventricle and a contorted bulbus arteriosus, with a longitudinal valvular process as in the Siren. The two branchial arteries, which wind round the gill-less arches, after- wards unite together on each side, and give off branches which form the pulmonary arteries, or those which go to the air-bladders.
The apparatus for aerial respiration commences by a short, single, wide and membranous trachea, or ductus pneumaiicus, which com- mences by a longitudinal laryngeal slit, one line in extent, situated three lines behind the orifice of the pharynx : a single plate of car- tilage is continued from this laryngeal opening forwards to that of the pharynx : the plate is as broad as the floor of the pharynx, and its office seems to be to prevent the collapse of the parietes of that tube, and to keep a free passage for the air to the trachea. This tube dilates at its lower end into a sac with very thin parietes, which com- municates directly with each division or lobe of the air-bladder. These lobes or lungs are partially subdivided into small lobes at their anterior and broadest part ; and then continue simple and flattened, gradually diminishing to an obtuse point situated behind the poste- rior extremity of the cloaca. The whole of the parietes of the lungs is honey-combed : the cells are largest, deepest and most vascular and subdivided at the anterior and broader end of the lung. The lungs are situated behind the ovaria, the kidneys, and the perito- neum, which is in contact with merely that part of their ventral flattened surfaces, not covered by other viscera.
The two kidneys are quite distinct, very long and narrow, but broadest towards the cloaca : the ureters communicate with the back part of the common termination of the oviducts. There were not any suprarenal bodies, nor any spleen.
The ovaria are two long, flattened bodies, with ovisacs and ova of difi*erent sizes : many between 2 and 3 lines in diameter, scattered among clusters of other ova of smaller size. The oviducts are distinct tortuous tubes, which commence by a very wide and thin-coated portion, opening by a slit, 3 lines wide at their anterior extremity, and not communicating with each other before opening into the pe- ritoneal cavity, as in the Plagiostomes. The oviduct contracts and performs many short undulations, adhering to the ovarian capsule as it descends : its coats become thicker, and oblique spiral folds are developed from the inner surface ; the capacity of the oviduct in- creases before its termination, which is by a single prominent open- ing, common to the two oviducts in the posterior part of the cloaca.
A small Allantois is situated between the oviduct and rectum. The cloaca receives the above parts in the following order, — first, or
1839.] Linnean Society. 31
most anteriorly, the common opening of the peritoneal canals ; se- condly, the anus ; thirdly, the AUantoid bladder ; fourthly, the ovi- ducts, with the ureters, which open into the back part of the ovi- ducts.
The brain consists of two elongated subcompressed distinct cere- bral hemispheres ; a single elliptical optic lobe, or representative of the bigeminal bodies ; a simple transverse cerebellar fold, not cover- ing the widely- open fourth ventricle ; largely developed pineal and pituitary glands ; and a single corpus mammillare.
The nerves given off from the brain, were the olfactory ; the optic, which arose from the same point at the middle line between the crura cerebri, and did not decussate ; the fifth pair ; the acoustic ; the pneumogastric ; and lingual nerves : there were no traces of the third, fourth, or sixth nerves ; there being no muscles to the eyeballs.
The eyes are very small, and adhere to the skin, which passes over them without forming any projection ; they have a small spherical lens, and no choroid gland.
The organ of hearing consists of a vestibule enclosed in a thick cartilaginous case, without external communication except for the foramina transmitting the portio mollis : it consists of two large otolithic sacs, containing each a white chalky mass ; the external one being six times the size of the one next the brain : above these sacs are three small semicircular canals. No trace of tympanic cavity or Eustachian tube.
The organ of smell consists of two oval membranous sacs, pli- cated internally, and having each a single external aperture upon the upper lip ; but without any communication with the mouth, — a structure which the author obsei*ved was perhaps the only single character which unexceptionably proved the Lepidosiren to be a true fish. The remaining evidence of its ichthyic nature reposed rather upon the concurrence of many less decisive characters.
These characters were stated to be, its covering of large round scales ; the mucous ducts of the head and lateral line ; the many- jointed soft ray supporting the rudimental pectoral and ventral fins ; the gelatinous vertebral chord, united anteriorly to the whole of the basi- occipital, and not to two condyles as in Batrachia; a prae- opercular bone, the intermaxillary bone being moveable ; the lower jaw having each ramus composed simply of a post-mandibular and dentary piece ; the double row of spinous processes, both above and below the vertebral chord ; the green colour of the ossified parts of the skeleton ; the straight intestine, with its spiral valve ; the absence of pancreas and spleen ; the single peritoneal outlet ; the position
32 Linnean Society, [April 16,
of the anus ; the single auricle of the heart ; the number of branchial arches, and the internal position of the gills ; a long lateral nerve ; acoustic labyrinth with large otolithes. These characters, with the nasal sacs opening only externally, prove satisfactorily the Lepido- siren to be a true Fish, and not a Perennibranchiate Reptile.
In the class of fishes, Mr. Owen pointed out the interesting rela- tions of the Lepidosiren as a link connecting the Cartilaginous fishes with the Malacopterygians, and especially with the Sauroid genera, Polypterus and Lepidosteus, and at the same time making the near- est approach in the class of fishes to the Perennibranchiate Reptiles.
For the species here described Mr. Owen proposed the name of Lepidosiren annectens. It is a native of the river Gambia, Africa.
Aprill6.
The Lord Bishop of Norwich, President, in the Chair.
Read, " Remarks on British Lichens and Fungi, principally on species or varieties new to our Flora." By Churchill Babington, Esq.
The object of Mr. C. Babington in this paper is to give descrip- tions of some species or varieties of Lichens and Fungi hitherto un- published in any British Flora, and also to communicate observa- tions on the transit of monstrosities to their proper forms. The Lichens brought into notice as not yet introduced into the British Flora are, Lecanora elatina, Ach., from Rose Hall, Cumberland ; Sterocaulon denudatum, Florke, (confounded with S. paschale) from Scotland ; Lecidea nitidula, Fries, also from Scotland ; Lecidea mis- cella, Ach., as distinct from L. miscella, Eng. Bot. ; Biatora Kro- ckiana, Hoppe, from Isles of Rum and Skye ; Biatora anomala, Fr., from Yoxall Lodge ; Opegrapha signata, Ach., from Herefordshire ; and Verrucaria margacea, Wahl., from Charnwood Forest. Among the Fungi are, Agaricus Marine, Klotsch ; A. serrulatus, Fr. ; The- lophora ferruginea, Pers. ; T. lactea, Fr. : T. Icevis, Pers. ; Peziza I,edi, Alb. and Schw. ; Stictis Uchenicola, Mont. ; Sclerotium ro- seum, KneifF. ; Spharia scoriadea, Fr. ; S. mesiota, Bab. ; S. rhy- tismoides, Bab. ; S. arbuticola, Fr. ; <S. alnea, Fr. ; S. ostruthii. Fr. ; S. Depazea^ Fr. ; Depazea pyricola, Desm. ; Dothidea choetomium, Kunze ; Stemonitis pulchella, Bab. ; Stilbum aurantiacum, Bab. ; Syzy- gitis megalocarpus, Ehrenb. ; Stibospora macrosperma, Pers. ; Conio- thecium amentaceum, Corda ; and Xenodochus carbonarius, Schl.
1839.] Linnean Society. 33
Read, " On a Gall gathered in Cuba, by W. S. MacLeay, Esq., on the leaf of a plant belonging to the order Ochnacea." By the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, M.A., F.L.S.
The gall is remarkable for its very close resemblance in habit and form to some epiphytous Fungi, for possessing a distinct operculum, and, especially, for bursting through the cuticle, which surrounds it in the form of a few laciniae at the base. Mr. Berkeley pointed out various forms of galls and other productions of insects which have been described as Fungi, but in none is the resemblance so striking as in the present. He regretted that he was not able to throw any light upon the animal by which it is caused, though he was able to state positively that it is an animal production, as in most instances decayed exuviae were found in its cavity, and in one case a little im- perfect grub, which was however unfortunately lost.
May 7.
The Lord Bishop of Norwich, President, in the Chair.
John Hawkins, M.D., of St. Albans, was elected a Fellow ; and Carl Gustav Carus, M.D., of Dresden, Henri Dutrochet, M.D., and Henri Milne Edwards, M.D., Members of the French Institute, Stephen Endlicher, M.D., of Vienna, and John Torrey, M.D., of New York, were elected Foreign Members of the Society.
Read, " Supplementary Observations on the Development of the Theca, and on the Sexes of Mosses." In a letter to R. H. Solly, Esq., F.R.S. & L.S. By William Valentine, Esq., F.L.S.
The author commences his letter by stating that subsequent ob- servations have induced him to concur entirely with the views of Professor Mohl as to the sporules of Mosses being developed by four in a mother cell, a fact Which he was led to doubt in his former com- munication printed in the 17th volume of the Society's Transactions. The present paper contains a detailed account of the development of the theca in (Edipodium Griffithianum, which exhibits a beau- tiful example of the tetrahedral union of the sporules. In this moss the four sporules in each mother cell are piled on each other so as to form a cone with a triangular base, and they appear to be connected with each other in the young state by a very minute stalk which is situated at the conjunction of three radiating lines. This connexion
No. IV. — Proceedings of the Linnean Society.
34 Linnean Society. [May 24
is perhaps in most instances dissolved at an early period, and the sporules recede a little from each other, but are still kept in the tri- angular form by the mother cell. It is not uncommon however to find the connexion unbroken after the sporules have arrived at ma- turity, and in these instances there seems to be a general adhesion at the opposing faces of the sporules.
The author concludes his paper with some remarks on the analogy that exists between sporules and pollen, which he observes, is so re- markable, and the particulars so numerous, that the essential identity of the two can be scarcely a matter of opinion.
May 24.
The Lord Bishop of Norwich, President, in the Chair.
This day, the Anniversary of the birthday of Linnaeus, and that appointed in the charter for the election of Council and Officers, the President opened the business of the Meeting, and in stating the number of Members whom the Society had lost during the past year, gave the follo\\:iug notices of some of them :
Samuel Brookes, Esq. — Mr. Brookes was devoted to the science of Conchology, and possessed a valuable collection of British and Fo- reign Testacea. He was the author of an Introduction to the Study of Conchology which appeared in 1815.
The Rev. Martin Davy, D.D., F.R.S., Master of Caius College, Cambridge.
The Rev. Richard Dreyer, LL.B.
John Lord Farnham.
Charles Holford, Esq.
Lawrence Brock Hollinshead, Esq.
John Hull, M.D. — Dr. Hull was ardently attached to the study of Botany, and in the midst of an extensive medical practice, he found occasional moments of leisure to devote to the cultivation of his favourite pursuit. We are indebted to him for the publication of a British Flora in 1799, of which a second edition appeared in 1808 ; and the Elements of Botany, in 2 volumes, 8vo, in 1 800. These works, highly creditable to their author, tended to increase the taste for botanical pursuits.
1839.] lAnnean Society, 35
Matthew Martin, Esq. — Mr. Martin reached the advanced age of 90. He became a Fellow of this Society in 1791.
George Milne, Esq. — Mr. Milne pursued with much ardour the study of Entomology for more than half a century, and his name is familiar to the cultivators of that branch of science in this country. He possessed an extensive cabinet of insects, particularly rich in Bri- tish and Exotic Lepidoptera. He had retired from London for several years to his native place Johnshaven, Kincardineshire, where he died some months ago at an advanced age.
The Rev. Robert Nixon, B.D., F.R.S.
William Younge, M.D. — Dr. Younge was the early friend and a fellow student of our late distinguished President and Founder Sir J. E. Smith, and the companion of his tour on the continent in the years 1786 and 1787, of which an account appeared in three volumes 8vo, in 1793, and a second edition in 1807. Dr. Younge was elected a Fellow of this Society at its first institution in March 1788.
Amongst the Foreign Members occur M. Frederic Cuvier, Mem- ber of the Academy of Sciences of the French Institute, the younger brother of the great Cuvier, and eminently distinguished as a system- atic zoologist. He was the author of a work on the value of the teeth as affording zoological characters in the class mammalia, and of a number of valuable papers on Descriptive Zoology in the An- nales and M^moires du Museum. He likewise wrote the principal part of the text to the Histoire Naturelle des Mammif^res, a work which he had undertaken in conjunction with GeofFroy St. Hilaire. Among his last productions may be noticed his Memoire sur les Ger- boises et les Gerbilles, printed in the second volume of the Transac- tions of the Zoological Society of London. He was distinguished, like his brother, for his candour and frankness of character, and a total freedom from those petty jealousies which too often beset men of science.
M. Charles de Gimbernat.
Gaspard Count Sternberg, Founder and President of the Royal Museum of Natural History at Prague, a distinguished patron of science, and author of a valuable original work on Fossil Plants, which were chiefly obtained from his own coal mines in Bohemia, and of an excellent Monograph of the genus Saxifraga, illustrated by coloured figures. To him we are indebted for the recovery of the vegetable treasures collected by Haenke in Peru, Cochabamba, and in the Philippines, whither he had accompanied the Spanish voyage of discovery under the celebrated, but unfortunate, Malaspina. These interesting plants have been published by Presl, under the auspices
36 Linnean Society, [June 4,
of Count Sternberg, in a work entitled ' Reliquiae Haenkeanse.' Count Sternberg was distinguished for his urbanity, hospitality, and an eager desire to promote every useful work. He left his collections and books of Natural History to the Museum already mentioned.
Among the Associates are the following :
Mr. John Hunneman. — Mr. Hunneman having been long the me- dium of communication between the botanists of this country and those of Germany, Switzerland, and Russia, our collections have been enriched through his means with a vast variety of new and in- teresting plants. A curious Mexican genus, belonging to the natural family Papaveracea, bears his name, and commemorates the services rendered by him to science.
Mr. George Penny. — He was well acquainted with the plants which he successfully cultivated, and was the author of the * Hortus Epsomensis', and of several papers on Garden Botany in Mr. Loudon's Gardener's Magazine.
Mr. William Weston Young made the drawings for Mr. Dillwyn's valuable work on British Confervse, and a series of drawings of Bri- tish birds now in the possession of Mr. Yarrell.
The President also announced that twenty Fellows, five Foreign Members, and two Associates had been elected since the last An- niversary.
At the election, which subsequently took place, the Lord Bishop of Norwich was re-elected President ; Edward Forster, Esq., Treasurer ; Francis Boott, M.D., Secretary; and Richard Taylor, Esq., Under- Secretary. The following five Fellows were elected into the Council in the room of others going out, viz. W. J. Burchell, Esq., J. W. Lubbock, Esq., Hugh Duke of Northumberland, John Forbes Royle, M.D., and WiUiam Yarrell, Esq.
June 4. Edward Forster, Esq., V.P. in the Chair.
Mr. George William Francis was elected a Fellow of the Society.
Read, *' Further Observations on the Spongillajluviatilis, -with some remarks on the nature of the Spongice Marines." In a letter to the Secretary, by John Hogg, Esq., M.A., F.L.S.
1839.] Linnean Society. 9/1
In the latter portion of this letter the author endeavours (in addi- tion to what has been already stated at p. 8,) to demonstrate the ve- getability of the river sponge, from the following facts, which were obtained by many experiments made by him upon that substance during the last two summers.
1 . From the general resemblance of the membrane which invests the soft portion or jelly with the membrane or cuticle of the leaves of many plants.
2. From this gelatinous or soft portion being so similar to the parenchymatous substance of the more fleshy kinds of leaves, and being chiefly composed of numerous pellucid globules.
3. From the green colouring matter or chromule contained in those globules, on being pressed out, giving a permanent green or yellow- ish-green colour to white paper, as is the case with the chromule of leaves.
4. From strong acids having the same effects on this sponge as they are seen to have upon plants when they are macerated in them.
5. From the mode in which numerous bubbles of gas, most pro- bably oxygen, are disengaged from the surface of the living mass of Spongilla, when exposed to the brightest solar light, being so ex- tremely analogous to that which is known to occur with the leaves of a plant when immersed in water and submitted to the direct ac- tion of the light of the sun.
As to the currents of water which take place in the Spongilla flu- viatilis, and are so similar to those which have been noticed by Dr. Grant and other authors in the sea sponges, and relied upon by them as the best evidence of their supposed animal nature, Mr. Hogg has, after many careful experiments, never been able to witness them taking place in any specimens which have been entirely destitute of every parasitical insect or other animal ; he therefore concludes that these currents are caused by some insect, which is seen so generally to inhabit nearly every specimen of the Spongilla ; and by means of the animal's performing the function of respiration, the streams or currents of water are found to enter into and flow out from the pores or oscules of that structure. But if on future investigation it shall be proved that these currents do occur in such individual masses of the Spongilla fluviatilis as are quite free from every parasite, Mr. Hogg would then consider that they are eff^ected by the same agents as cause the motions or circulation of the fluids in vegetables.
The author has not perceived any trace of animal organization, or the least symptom of sensation, or any powers of contraction and di- latation in this species of sponge, although he has applied to it, when in a fresh and vigorous state, several sorts of powerful stimuli.
38 Linnean Society, [June 4,
He next showed that no arguments in support of the fancied ani- mality of the Spongilla can be brought forward, either from its smell- ing like carrion or animal matter, or from numerous spiculse being present in its composition. And the manner in which he raised young SpongillcE from the seed-like sporidia and locomotive sporules makes it perfectly conclusive that this freshwater sponge cannot be, as Montagu supposed, the nidus of some aquatic insect, although such an opinion might, without those successful experiments, have been somewhat confirmed by the author's discovery of an unknown and anomalous insect, which he has at present only observed inhabit- ing this production. Some specimens of this small insect were ex- hibited, and presented to the Society.
Mr. Hogg concluded his letter with some general remarks on the nature of the Spongia marince. He stated that hitherto he had al- ways accounted these substances as being principally composed of an animate or live jelly, which was endowed, as some authors af- firmed, with a certain degree of sensation, and consequently had, fourteen years ago, instituted for them an order " Gelatinifera" which he arranged the last among the Polyparia Composita. That on becoming convinced by his late researches on the river sponge of its vegetability, he began in some measure to concur in the opinion of Montagu, that that substance might probably be quite distinct from the sea sponge, and to think that the latter might still be of an animal nature ; but, on a more recent examination and comparison of the Spongilla with many of the SpongitB, he has found that there exist no real grounds for that opinion, and that there scarcely is even a generic difference between them.
The author then compared the freshwater sponge with the sea sponge, and showed, among other extreme resemblances in their structure and composition, that many of the latter possess similar seed-like bodies or sporidia, as well as the locomotive germ-like bo- dies or sporules which have been described by Dr. Grant.
Mr. Hogg concludes, if the currents of water do flow in and issue out from the sea sponge, independent of the function of respiration of any marine insect or parasitical animal nestling within it, that then they are caused by the same means which effect the motions of fluids in plants, and that these currents convey nutriment to the in- ner parts of the sponge, after the same manner as food is supplied to vegetables. He observed that neither the odours of the fresh, dried, and burnt sponges, nor the presence of ammonia in them, af- forded proofs of their animality, and that there really is no more pe- culiarity in their chemical composition than what likewise exists in that of certain plants.
1839.] Linnean Society, S&
Mr. Hogg therefore maintains it to be impossible to account the Spongilla as belonging to the vegetable kingdom and the Spongia to the animal ; and since he has become sure of the former, and since .the Spongia is now known to popsess neither one organ nor a single property peculiar to an animal, he has been at length forced to ac- knowledge the vegetable nature of the Spongia.
Moreover, the fact of Dr. Grant having witnessed the locomotive sporules of some of the sea sponges germinating and developing themselves after the forms of their parent structures, at once decides that they cannot be the nidus or matrix, or the fabrication or produc- tion of any marine animal.
Lastly, Mr. Hogg, considering to what order of plants t^e fresh- water and the sea sponges should be referred, proposed to classify them in a separate order " Spongiae," which ought to be placed between the orders Fungi and Algae.
June 18.
Mr. Forster, V.P., in the Chair.
The Secretary read a letter addressed to him by the President no- minating the four following Members of the Council to be Vice-Pre- sidents for the year ensuing, commencing the 24th of last month, viz.
Robert Brown, Esq. ; Edward Forster, Esq. ; Thomas Horsfield, M.D. ; Aylmer Bourke Lambert, Esq.
The V. P., in the chair, read a notice, addressed to the Society from Upsal, aimouncing the death of Louisa von Linne, the third and last surviving daughter of Linnaeus, which took place at Upsal, on the 21st of March last, at the very advanced age of 90.
Read " A Biographical Sketch of Ferdinand Bauer, Natural Hi- story Painter to the Expedition under Capt. FHnders." By Dr. John Lhotsky. Communicated by the Secretary.
Ferdinand Bauer, the celebrated Natural History Painter and Tra- veller, was born in the year 1760, at Feldsberg in Austria, where his father held the appointment of Painter to Prince Lichtenstein.
In the year 1775 we find him employed by the Rev. Norbert
40 Linnean Society. [June 18,
Boccius, of the same place, to make miniature paintings of plants from nature.
In 1784, while still in the same employment, he was through the recommendation of the elder Jacquin engaged by Dr. Sibthorp to accompany him in his first Journey to Greece, and on his return he was for several years occupied in finishing the numerous drawings of plants made in that journey, and which prove him to have been, even at that period, a very accurate observer, as well as a highly ac- complished artist.
In 1801 he was selected by Sir Joseph Banks as the Natural Hi- story Painter in the voyage of Capt. Flinders. From this expedition he returned to Europe in 1805, bringing with him no less than 1600 finished sketches of plants, besides numerous drawings of animals, of equal merit, and for several years was engaged in finishing a se- lection of his drawings of plants, which are deposited at the Admi- ralty, the board by which he was employed.
After the Investigator was condemned as unfit for the prosecution of the voyage, and Capt. Flinders had left New Holland to return to Europe, Mr. Bauer, along with Mr. Brown, remained in New South Wales, chiefly at Port Jackson ; but he also visited and remained a considerable time in Norfolk Island, where he diligently collected and made drawings of all the plants of that remarkable island, and from his materials Dr. Endlicher has lately published his very interesting
* Prodromus Florae Norfolkicese.'
In 1813 Mr. Bauer commenced the publication of a work entitled
* lUustrationes Florae Novae Hollandiae,' which did not extend beyond three numbers, and of these the last was finished at Vienna, where he had returned in 1814. This work met with very little encou- ragement, either in this country or in his own.
In the vicinity of Vienna he continued to reside, employing him- self in drawing the more remarkable plants that flowered in the im- perial gardens of that capital, and even in making occasional bota- nical excursions into the Austrian and Styrian Alps. Besides the works already noticed, during his stay in England he prepared the greater part of the drawings of the first volume of Mr. Lambert's work on the genus Pinus, and the plates of that work were chiefly coloured by him. He also prepared a series of drawings of the spe- cies of Digitalis, which have since been published by Dr. Lindley, in his * Digitalium Monographia.*
Mr. Bauer was seized with a severe illness in 1825, which termi- nated in his death on the 17th of March 1826, having attained the age of 66.
1839.] lAnnean Society, 41
Read, "A Notice of a Plant which produces perfect Seeds without any apparent action of Pollen on the Stigma." By Mr. John Smith, A.L.S.
The subject of the present notice belongs to the natural family of Euphorhiacece, and has been cultivated for several years in the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew, under the name of Sapium aquifolium. It is a native of Moreton Bay, on the east coast of New Holland, where it was discovered by Mr. Allan Cunningham, who sent three plants of it to Kew in 18'i9. A short time after their introduction the plants flowered, and they proving to be all females, they were na- turally passed over as belonging to a dioecious j)lant, until Mr. Smith's attention was particularly drawn to them by the fact of their producing perfect seeds. They have annually flowered and matured their seeds since, and notwithstanding the most diligent search and constant attention no male flowers or any pollen-bearing organs have been detected. Young plants have been raised at different times from the seeds, and they bear so close a resemblance to their parent* that it is scarcely possible even to suspect the access of pollen from any other plant.
Mr. Smith considers the plant as the type of a new genus, which he names Coelebogyne. It forms an irregularly branched, rigid, ever- green shrub, of about three feet in height, with alternate, petiolate, elliptical, mucronate, coriaceous leaves, having three large spinous teeth on each side, and furnished with two small subulate persistent stipules. The paper was Accompanied by a young plant raised from seed produced at Kew, and by a beautiful drawing of the parts of fructification from the pencil of Mr. Francis Bauer.
Read also, " Descriptions of newly discovered Spiders." By John Blackwall, Esq., F.L.S.
This paper comprises descriptions of new species of Spiders, re- cently discovered, and principally by the author himself, in the north of England and Wales, and it must be confessed that the success which has attended his labours in this department is greater than could have been anticipated, no fewer than fifty-three species having been added by him to the catalogue. Much of this success is to be attributed to the fact of his attention having been chiefly directed to those species which, on account of their diminutive size, require the aid of optical instruments, of a high magnifying power, for their accurate examination.
The genera to which the species chiefly belong are Drassus, Clu- biona,Lycosa,Agelena, Theridium, Walckenaera, Neriene and Linyphia.
No. V. — Proceedings of the Linnean Society.
42 Linnean Society, [Nov. 5,
November 5. Edward Forster, Esq., V.P., in the Chair.
The Society assembled this evening for the Session. Beriah Botfield, Esq., of Norton Hall, Northampton, was elected a Fellow of the Society.
The Rev. William Wood, B.D., F.L.S., exhibited specimens of a variety of Typha angustifolia, remarkable for its small size, and the shortness of its female catkins, collected by him in the extensive marshes situate between Sandwich and Deal.
Read, " Descriptions of some new Insects collected in Assam, by William Griffith, Esq., Assistant Surgeon in the Madras Medical Service." By the Rev. F. W. Hope, M.A., F.R.S. & L.S.
The insects described in this paper, some of which are remarkable for their size and splendid colours, were mostly collected in Assam by Mr. Griffith, during the stay of the late Scientific Mission from Calcutta, to which he was attached. They chiefly belong to the longicom beetles, and to the family of Lamiadce. The following are the characters of the new genera and species :
LAMIA. 1. L. Horsfieldii. Long. lin. 26 ; lat. lin. 8§.
Corpus cinereum ; antennis corpore longioribus elytrisque flavo-creta- ceis maculisque ornatis, antennae articulis tribus primis subscabris.
This species, which has been named in compliment to Dr. Hors- field, is the largest of the family, and is nearly related to L. catenata of De Haan from Japan.
G. N. EUOPLIA.
Corpus subdepressum. Antenncs lamiseformes, fere ut in Omacantha. Thorax utrinque spinosus, dorso punctulatus. Elytra depressa, api- cibus 2-spinosis, spina suturali minore, lateraJibus majoribus. In re- liquis cum Lamia convenit.
1. E.polyspila.
Besides the one enumerated, the author possesses five other species, all natives of India, and which are still undescribed.
G. N. OPLOPHORA.
Caput fere quadratum. Mandibulce falciformes. ^wienwts corpore paulld longiores, articulis basi pallidis. Thorax utrinque armatus, dorso for-
1839.] Linnean Society. 43
titer rugoso, tiiberculo in medio disci posito. Elytra thorace 4-pl6 lon- giora, basi sinuata, subscabra, gradatim e humeris ad apicem magni- tudine decrescentia, apicibus rotundatis. Corpus infrk annulis abdo- minis ad apicem sensim attenuatis. Pectus valde convexum, mucrone armatum. Pedes difformes et robusti. 1. O.Solln.
This splendid species is dedicated to Richard Horsman Solly, Esq., F.R.S. & L.S., in whose cabinet the chief part of the insects described in this paper is contained. To the same genus belong Lamia punctata of Fabricius, and two undescribed Indian species.
G. N. ANOPLOPHORA.
Caput quadratum. AntenncB corpore duplo longiores, ultimo articulo vdld^ elongato. Thorax utrinque spinosus, medio depressus. Elytra antice et postice fere sequalia, apicibus rotundatis. Corpus infra squa- mosum, pectore inermi. Pedes difformes et robusti. 1. A. Stanley ana.
This insect, distinguished for its brilliant colours, which rival those of some of the more splendid Lepidoptera, has been named in honour of the Lord Bishop of Norwich, President of the Linnean Society.
CALLICHROMA, Lair.
1. C. Cantori.
Long. lin. 21 ; lat. lin. 5.
Viride, nitidum ; an tennis violaceis, femoribus tibiisque laet^ cyaneis tar- sisque aureo-ornatis.
This species is named in compliment to Dr. Cantor, a distinguished zoologist in the service of the East India Company, and whose va- luable collection of Indian Reptilia and drawings are deposited in the RadclifFe Library at Oxford.
2. C. Griffithii.
Long. lin. 20i ; lat. lin. 8.
Obscure atrum ; antennis tarsisque luteis, elytris nigris et flavo-fasciatis.
This species is dedicated to its discoverer, an acute and enter- prising botanist, and author of two valuable memoirs on the deve- lopement of the ovulum of Santalum and Loranthus, printed in the 18th Volume of the Society's Transactions.
MONOCHAMUS, Megerle. 1. M. ruber.
Long. lin. 1 1 ; lat. lin. 4^.
Ruber ; antennis corpore dupld longioribus, thorace elytrisque nigro-ma- culatis, pedibus concoloribus.
44 Linnean Society, [Nov. 19^
Read also, " On Cuscuta epilinum and halophyta." By Charles C. Babington, Esq., M.A., F.L.S.
The first of these species has been recently added to the British Flora by J. E. Bowman, Esq., F.L.S., having been found by him growing abundantly on flax, near Trelydan Hall, Montgomeryshire, in August last. The other species, which occurs on the coast of Norway, growing upon Chenopodece, has not been hitherto observed in this country. The author gives the following characters of the two plants : —
1. C. epilinum (Weihe), florum glomenilis bracteatis sessilibus, squamis palmati-subsexfidis tubo corollse semper ventricoso adpressis, sepalis carnosis basi deltoideis corolla vix brevioribus.
2. halophyta (Fries), " florum glomerulis subbracteatis" sessilibus, squa- mis bifidis tubo corollae ventricoso adpressis : segmentis bifidis, calyce corolla multo breviori.
November 19. Edward Forster, Esq., V.P., in the Chair.
William Borrer, Jun., Esq., B.A., of St. Peter's College, Cam- bridge ; Richard Davis, Esq., of St. Helen's Place ; and Christopher Parsons, Esq., of South Church, Essex, were elected Fellows of the Society.
Read, " A Monograph of the genus Disporum.'' By D. Don, Esq., Libr. L.S., Prof. Bot. King's College.
This genus was first suggested by Mr. Brown, in his ' Prodromus Florae Novae HoUandiaa'; and the name of i)z5por Mm was subsequently given to it by Salisbury in the first volume of the Transactions of the Horticultural Society of London. It remained, however, unde- scribed, and almost unnoticed, until the publication of the author's work on the plants of Nepal, in which a detailed description of the genus, and the characters of two additional species were given. The characters of the genus consist in its campanulate perianthium, with the sepals produced into a pouch or spur at the base, in the cells of its ovarium bearing two ovula, in its baccate pericarpium, and in its umbellate inflorescence. These distinctions will be found to be common to all the Asiatic species hitherto referred by most
1839.] Linnean Society. 45
botanists to Uvular la. We subjoin the characters of the species
described in this paper : —
1. />. calcaratum, umbellis pedunculatis sub-5-flori8, sepalis lanceolatis acutiuscuHs basi long^ calcaratis, antheris filamentis stigmatibusquc stylo tripl6 longioribus, foliis ovato-lanceolatis sessilibus.
Uvularia calcarata. Wall. Cat. n. 5087.
2. D. WalUchii, umbellis subsessilibus sub-S-floris, sepalis lanceolatis acuminatis, calcaribus rectis abbreviatis, antheris filamentis 4-pld bre- vioribus, stylo stigmatibus longiore, foliis ovato-lanceolatis subpetio- latis.
Uvularia Hamiltoniana, B. et C. Wall. Cat. n. 5088.
3. Z). Hamiltonianum, umbellis pedunculatis sub-5-floris, sepalis lanceo- latis acutis, calcaribus abbreviatis recurvis, antheris filamentorum longi- tudine, stylo stigmatibus subaequali, foliis ovato-lanceolatis subpetio- latis.
Uvularia Hamiltoniana, A. Wall. Cat. n. 5088. U. Betua. Ham. MSS.
4. D. Horsfieldii, umbellis pedunculatis sub-5-floris, sepalis spathulatis mucronatis puberulis, antheris filamentis dupl6 brevioribus, stylo stig- matibus duplo longiore, foliis ovato-lanceolatis subpetiolatis.
Uvularia Hamiltoniana, D. Wall. Cat. n. 5088.
5. D. Leschenaultianum, umbellis sessilibus 3 — 5-floris, sepalis ovato- lanceolatis acutis basi gibbosis, antheris filamentis vix dupld breviori- bus, stylo stigmatibus ter longiore, foliis ovatis subpetiolatis.
Uvularia Leschenaultiana. Wall. Cat. n. 5089.
6. D. Pitsutum (Don, Prodr. p. 50.), umbellis pedunculatis 7 — 9-floris, sepalis cuneato-lanceolatis obtusiusculis basi gibbosis, antheris fila- mentis ter brevioribus, stylo stigmatibus dupld longiore, foliis lanceo- latis subpetiolatis.
7. D. parviforum (Don, Prodr. p. 50.), umbellis subsessiUbus 2— 7-floris, sepalis lanceolatis acuminatis basi gibbosis, antheris filamentis dupld brevioribus, stigmatibus stylo ter brevioribus, foliis lanceolatis subpeti- olatis.
8. D. fulvum (Salisb. in Hort. Trans, i. p. 330.), umbellis sessilibus sub- 4-floris, sepalis lanceolatis acutis basi breviter calcaratis, antheris fila- mentis vix brevioribus, stigmatibus styli longitudine, foliis lanceolatis subpetiolatis.
The author concludes his paper with the description of a new and nearly-related genus, founded upon a plant which was introduced by Mr. Allan Cunningham from New South Wales into the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew, in 1823, and which is remarkable for its unenclosed embryo, and for the singular appendages, similar to those of Parnassia, which are seated at the inner base of the sepals. The following is the description of this interesting genus : —
46 Linnean Society. [Dec. 3,
TRIPLADENIA.
Perianthium 6-phyllum, petaloideum, patens, aequale, deciduum : foliolis aestivatione involutis, basi biappendiculatis ! sessilibus. Stamina 6, toro, nee basi sepalorum inserta. AnthercB erectae, extrorsae, bilocu- lares, duplici rima longitudinal! dehiscentes. Ovarium liberum, trilo- culare : loculis biovulatis : ovulis campylotropis, collateralibus, erectis. Stigmata 3, recurvata. Pericarpium subbaccatum, 3-loculare, 3-valve, loculicido-dehiscens : loculis 1 — 2-spermis. Semina sub-orbiculata, hinc convexa, inde angulata, v. concaviuscula, glabra, nitida, colore suc- cinea, hilo maxime fungoso-strophiolato, cbalaza orbiculata concava fuscH, raphide dimidio seminis vix breviori, elevata : testa tenui, mem- branacea: albumen copiosum, corneum, album. Embryo oblongus, albus, hinc convexus, inde planiusculus, more Graminum extra albumen locatus, eodemque facie plana applicatus, funiculo maxime strophiolato solummodo obtectus ! extremitate radicular! (cauliculari) paullo latiori.
Herba (Novae Hollandiae) perennis, rhizomate multicepite, caulibus subsim- plicibus multangulis, foliis amplexicaulibus ovato-lanceolatis, pedunculis axillaribus solitariis unijloris infra medium articulatis involucrelloque 3-phyllo munitis.
1. T. Cunninghamii.
December 3. Edward Forster, Esq., V.P., in the Chair.
Edward S. Blundell, M.D., Lower Seymour-street, Portman- square, was elected a Fellow ; and the Rev. William Stobbs, Strom- ness, Orkney, was elected an Associate of the Society.
The Rev. "W. S. Hore exhibited a specimen of a remarkable va- riety of Duck, supposed to be hybrid between the Anas Boschas and Anas acuta of Linnaeus,
Read, ** Descriptions of three Vegetable Monstrosities lately found at York." By the Rev. W. Hincks, F.L.S.
Two of these monstrosities occur in species of Iris and much re- semble each other. The species are /. versicolor and /. sambucina. They have 5 parts in each circle, except that the inner circle of pe- tals consists of 4 in one instance and only 3 in the other. It is suf- ficiently manifest that they are produced by the union of two flowers to form each, and they lead to the conclusion that when Irises with 4 parts in each circle occur (which are not very uncommon) they are
1839.] Linnean Society, 4J
unions of two flowers, one third part of each having perished in the junction. Various other monstrosities consisting in the union of two flowers were compared with the subjects of the description, par- ticularly some of QEnothera, flowers having 7 petals, 14 stamens, and 7 stigmas, where the parts preserved in the union are in exactly the same proportion as in the Irises.
The third specimen described as a monstrous union of 4 flowers in Scrophularia nodosa. The flower-stalk may be perceived to be formed by the adherence of several stalks. The parts found are 15 sepals, 16 petals, 20 stamens, 2 separate ovaria, each with 2 carpels, and a third ovarium formed by the adherence of 2 more, and con- sisting of 8 carpels. Explanations were attempted of the manner in which the union of 4 flowers would account for these numbers of parts. The increased developement of the circle of stamens, 5 ap- pearing for each flower, though of these several are united in threes together, and two are imperfect, and the increased number of carpels in two of the united flowers, are interesting facts. They show that the union of the flowers had the eff^ect of diminishing and rendering more equable the pressure on the interior circles so as to allow of the growth of parts which are usually abortive.
There was also read, ** A monograph of Streptopus, with the de- scription of a new genus now first separated from it." By D. Don, Esq., Libr.L.S., Prof. Bot. King's College.
The genus Streptopus was established by the elder Richard in Michaux's ' Flora Boreali-Americana,' and was intended to include, besides the Uvularia amplexifoUa of Linnaeus, which is to be regarded as the type, two other species, then entirely new to botanists, namely, jS. roseus and lanuginosvs. The first is common to Europe and Ame- rica, while the two last are confined to the latter continent. A fourth species, a native of Gosaingthan and Kamaon, was described under the name of simplex in the ' Prodromus Florae Nepalensis.' The lanu- ginosus is considered by Professor Don as the type of a new genus, which he has named Prosartes, and which is distinguished from Streptopus by its lengthened filaments, binary pendulous ovula, and terminal inflorescence. In Streptopus the filaments are short, with erect sagittate anthers, the cells of its baccate pericarpium are po- lyspermous, the seeds erect, and the flowers are axillary and solitary. Both genera belong to the SmilacetE, and serve to connect that family with Meianthacea. The characters of the new genus and of the species belonging to both are here subjoined : —
48 Linnean Society, [Dec. 3,
1. S. amplexifolius (Lam. et DeCand. Fl. Franc. 3. p. 174.), glaber; pedunculis medio convolutis appendiculatis, sepalis obtus^ acumi- natis, antheris sagittatis acuminatis, stigmate trilobo, baccae loculis 6-spermis.
2. S. roseus (Mich. Fl. Bor. Amer. i. p. 201.), hirtellus; foliis ciliatis, pe- dunculis recurvatis subbifloris, sepalis lanceolatis acuminatis, antheris bicuspidatis filamentorum longitudine, stigmatibus stylo 6-pl6 brevi- oribus, baccae loculis 4 — 6-spermis.
3. S. simplex (Don, Prodr. p. 48.), glaber ; pedunculis rectis ! nudis, se- palis obtusis, antheris cordato-lanceolatis obtusis, stigmatibus styli sub- longitudine, baccae loculis 10 — 12-spermis.
PROSARTES.
Streptopi sp., Mich.
Perianthium 6-phyllum, petaloideum, campanulatum, sequale, deciduum : folioUs basi foveolatis v. saccatis. Stamina 6, basi sepalorum adnata, simulque decidua. Antherce erectae, innatae, obtusje, biloculares, rim4 duplici marginali longitudinaliter dehiscentes. Ovarium liberum, 3- loculare : loculis biovulatis : ovulis obovatis, a placentae apice pendulis ! Stigmata 3, brevissima, recurvata. Pericarpium baccatum, 3-loculare. Semina solitaria, v. rarius bina.
Herbae (Amer. bor.) perennes, pube ramosd vestitcB, rhizomate diviso mul- ticepiie. Caules teretiusculi. Folia sessilia, dilatata. Inflorescentia terminalis, umhellata. Bacca rubra.
1. P. lanuginosa, umbellis bifloris sessilibus, sepalis lanceolatis acumi- natis 3-nerviis basi foveolatis, stylo glabro, foliis cordato-ovatis subam- plexicaulibus utrinque pubescentibus.
2. P. Menziesiiy umbellis sessilibus bifloris, sepalis oblongis mucronatis 6- nerviis margine revolutis basi saccatis, stylo longissimo piloso, foliis ovatis sessilibus glabriusculis.
This new species is a native of the north-west coast of America, where it was first found by Mr. Menzies in the voyage of discovery under Vancouver, and it has been very properly named in compli- ment to that venerable botanist.
The plant bears a close resemblance to some species of Disporum, and it moreover agrees with that genus in its sepals being produced into a short spur or pouch at their base. The flowers are consi- derably larger than those of lanuginosa, and they are apparently of a yellow colour. The style is long and copiously hairy. The genus is essentially distinguished from Disporum by its innate anthers, nearly concrete styles, and pendulous seeds.
1839.] Ltnnean Society, 49
December 17. Mr. Forster, V.P., in the Chair.
Specimens of the Lagurus ovatus collected last summer at Sewer's End, two miles from Saffron Walden, were presented by Mr. Gum- ming, who discovered the plant about three years ago in that locality, which is its only actual English station.
Read, " Description of the Curata, a plant of the tribe of Bamhusea, of the culm of which the Indians of Guiana prepare their Sarbacans or Blow-pipes." By Robert H. Schomburgk, Esq., communicated by the Secretary.
Referring to a passage in Baron Humboldt's " Personal Narra- tive" of his Travels in America, in which the learned author de- scribes the reeds of which the Indian Blow-pipes are made, and re- grets his inability to determine from what plant they were obtained, Mr. Schomburgk states it to have been a point of the greatest in- terest with him in his recent journeys in the interior of Ouiana to ascertain this fact. He found that the Macusi tribe of Indians ob- tained these remarkable reeds by barter from the Arecunas, who again made journeys of several months* duration to the westward to procure them from the Maiongcong and Guinan Indians, to whose country they are restricted, and who have thence acquired among the other natives the appellation of the Curata people. The Are- cuna thus becomes the medium of the barter carried on of blow- pipes on the one hand for Urari poison on the other, the latter being found in the district inhabited by the Macusi, and exchanged by them for the tube through which the arrows impregnated with it are discharged with such deadly effect. It was at a settlement of Maiong- cong Indians near the river Emaruni that Mr. Schomburgk at last succeeded in obtaining positive information of the locality of these reeds, which he was informed were found on two lofty mountains, named by the Indians Mashiatti and Marawacca, the former of which was pointed out to him at the distance of about 20 miles. The latter however lying more directly on his route was visited by him in pre- ference ; it is seated at a day's journey from a Maiongcong settle- ment on the banks of the Cuyaca, from whence the natives showed the beaten track. After having ascended the mountain to a height of about 3500 feet above the Indian village, the traveller followed the course of a small mountain stream, on the banks of which the Curas or Curatas, as these reeds are called by the Indians, grow in dense tufts. They form in general clusters of from forty to a hundred No. VI. — Proceedings of the Linnean Society.
50 Linnean Society. [Dec. I?, 1839.
stems, which are pushed forth, as in many other Bambuseae, from a strong jointed subterranean rootstock. The stem rises straight from the rhizoma, without knot or interruption, and preserving an equal thickness throughout, frequently to the height of 16 feet, be- fore the first dissepiment is stretched across the interior and the first branches are given off^. The joints that follow succeed each other at intervals of from 15 to 18 inches ; and the whole plant attains a height of from 40 to 50 feet. The stem when full-grown is at the base about an inch and a half in diameter, or nearly 5 inches in cir- cumference ; but Mr. Schomburgk mentions having seen young stems, which at the height of 20 feet, and with a thickness of scarcely a quarter of an inch, offered no signs of articulation. The branches are only formed when the stem begins to increase in diameter. The full-grown stem is of a bright green colour, perfectly smooth and hollow within. The branches are verticillate, generally from 3 to 4 feet in length, very slender, terete and nodose ; the upper joints separated by an interval of from 2 to 3 inches, and clothed by the sheaths of the leaves, which are split at the apex, persistent, striate and somewhat scabrous. The leaves are linear-lanceolate, obliquely rounded at the base, acute, of a bright green above, glaucescent below, nervoso-striate, with the midrib prominent, and the margin scabrous, from 8 to 9 inches long, and 5 or 6 lines broad ; they are furnished with a short petiole, which is articulated to the vagina ; and a series of long setae occupy the place of the ligula. The inflo- rescence is in terminal spikes, with a flexuose rachis ; the locustse subsessile, lanceolate, lax, from 1^ to 2 inches in length. The en- tire plant is from 40 to 50 feet in height ; but the weight of its in- numerable branches causes the slender stem to curve downwards so that the upper part generally describes an arch, which adds greatly to the gracefulness of its appearance. Leaving out of consideration the length of the first nodeless joint, it resembles in its general habit the Bamhusa latifolia of Humboldt, which Mr. Schomburgk was not unfrequently led into the mistake of confounding with it at a di- stance. He estimates the height at which it grew as 6000 feet above the level of the sea ; and its growth appears to be limited to the chain of sandstone mountains which extends between the second and fourth parallel, and forms the separation of waters between the rivers Parima, Merewari, Ventuari, Orinoco and Negro. The only ascer- tained localities were Mounts Mashiatti, Marawacca and Wanaya.
Mr. Schomburgk describes at length the process by which the blow-pipes are prepared, and encased, for their better security in the hollowed trunk of a slender species of palm ; together with the mode
Jan. 21, 1840.] Linnean Society. 51
in which other parts of the apparatus are supplied in order to render it available for its important uses, and the various modifications in its construction occurring among the different tribes. He adds also 9. particular description of the arrows and quivers in use among several of the native tribes.
To this paper was appended the following note by John Joseph Bennett, Esq. F.L.S.
** Mr. Schomburgk having placed in my hands specimens of the grass which forms the subject of his communication, with a request that (if I should find it to be unpublished) I would describe it, I consulted the publications of Nees von Esenbeck and Kunth, and was at first strongly inclined to suspect that it was identical with the Arundinaria verticillata of those authors ; but a subsequent examination has satisfied me that it is a distinct species of that genus. I have had no opportunity of comparing it with specimens oi A. verticillata, but it difi'ers from the descriptions of that species, given by the two eminent botanists above named, in the following particulars. Its leaves are linear, instead of lanceolate, and smooth on both surfaces, instead of scabrous ; the mouth of their sheaths is furnished on either side of the articulation of the leaf with a fringe of long rigid setae, which are not mentioned as occurring in A. verti- cillata ; its locustse are sessile, instead of being pedicelled ; and the hypogynous scales are lanceolate and acute, instead of obovate and obtuse. The following character will therefore serve to distinguish
the species : —
Arundinaria SchomburgUi.
A. foliis linearibus acuminatis laevibus; vaginarum ore utrinque longe setoso, spic^ simplici pauciflor^, locustis sessilibus, squamulis hypogynia lanceolatis acutis."
January 21, 1840.
Mr. Forster, V.l^., in the Chair.
Mr. Hyde Clarke, of Great Ormond Street, and James Rankine, M.D., of Ayr, were elected Fellows.
Mr. Hewett Cottrell Watson, F.L.S., exhibited specimens of Ca- rum Bulhocastanum discovered by Mr. W. H. Coleman, near Cherry Hinton, Cambridgeshire, and of Seseli Libanotis gathered by the same in a Dean west of the river Cuckmere, near Seaford, Sussex, being the first time it has been observed in that county.
52 Linnean Society, [Feb. 4,
Mr. Solly, F.L.S., exhibited two splendid drawings executed by- Mrs. Withers of a male plant of Encephalartos pungensy which flowered in the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew, in October last.
Mr. IlifF, F.L.S., exhibited some urate of ammonia voided by the Boa Constrictor at the Surrey Zoological Gardens, in the midst of which were several larvae supposed by Mr. Curtis to be those of the Musca Canicularis of Linnaeus. Mr. IlifF is of opinion they were voided with the excrements of the Boa, and referred to a case in the Memoirs of the Medical Society of London, where he believes si- milar larvae were voided from the intestines of a man.
Specimens of the Lastrea rigida collected at Settle, Yorkshire, were presented by Mr. Daniel Cooper, A.L.S.
Read " Observations on the Ergot." By Francis Bauer, Esq., F.R.S., and L.S.
The author, as is well known, has made the ergot a subject of particular study, and about thirty years ago he undertook, at the suggestion of Sir Joseph Banks, a series of careful microscopical ob- servations, with a view to determine the nature and cause of that singular production, and the beautiful drawings prepared by him at that time, illustrative of the ergot in various stages of its develop- ment, form part of the Banksian collections now deposited in the British Museum. Mr. Bauer's investigation led him to determine the ergot to be a morbid condition of the seed, but he was unsuc- cessful in ascertaining the cause of the disease, which Messrs. Smith and Quekett have satisfactorily shown to be occasioned by a mi- nute filamentous fungus, a fact already recorded at p. 1 & 4. After a long lapse of years Mr. Bauer was induced to resume the subject, and the result has been an additional drawing from his masterly pencil, displaying the minute fungus already noticed in different stages of its growth. The fungus has been named by Mr. Quekett Ergotcetia ahortifaciens .
February 4. Mr. Forster, V.P., in the Chair.
Thomas White Mann, Esq., of Upper Hollo way, was elected a Fellow ; and Mr. David Moore, Curator of the Botanic Garden at Glasnevin near Dublin, was elected an Associate of the Society.
1840.] Linnean Society. 53
Read, '* On the Heliamphora nutans, a new Pitcher Plant from British Guiana." By George Bentham, Esq., F.L.S.
The interesting subject of this communication was discovered by Mr. Schomburgk growing in a marshy savannah on the mountain of Roraima, on the borders of British Guiana, at an elevation of about 6000 feet above the level of the sea. It belongs to the Sarraceniacea, and constitutes a very distinct genus of that small but remarkable family of plants, hitherto exclusively confined to the United States. The genus is principally distinguished from Sarracenia by the entire absence of petals, small apterous stigma, and trilocular ovarium.
The following are the characters of this new genus :
HELIAMPHORA.
Perigonii foliola 4, 5, (vel 6 ?) hypogyna, libera, eestivatione valde imbri- cata, subpetaloidea. Stamina numero indefinita, hypogyna. Anihera oblongo-lineares, versatiles, biloculares, loculis oppositis longitudinaliter dehiscentibus. Ovarium triloculare, ovulis numerosis anatropis pluri- seriahter placentae axili affixis. Stylus simplex, apice truncatus. Stigma parvum, obscure trilobum, minute ciliatum. " Capsula trilocularis, trivalvis, polysperma" (Schomb.). Semina obovata, compressa, testa fusca laxiuscula, vix rugosa, in alam fusco-membranaceum semen cingentem expansa. Embryo parvus, teres, rectus, prope basin albu- minis copiosi, radicula juxta hilum, cotyledonibus parvis.
Herba perennis, uliginosa. Folia radicalia ; petiolus tubuloso-amphoree- formis, ore obliquo margine subrevoluto. Scapus erectus, apice simpli- citer racemosus, glaber. Flores nutantesy alhi v. pallida rosei.
1. H. nutans.
Read a paper, entitled " On the Structure of the Tissues of Cy- cadecd" By D. Don, Esq., Libr. L. S., Prof. Bot. King's College.
In ConiferiB the structure of the stem presents the ordinary appear- ance of dicotyledonous trees ; the annual layers are distinctly marked, and there is a regular bipartition of each into wood and bark (liber) ; but in Cycadece no bipartition takes place of the fibro-vascular bundles, which in that respect resemble those of monocotyledonous plants, and the differences otherwise are very striking, Cyca^ having, be- sides a large central pith, several thick concentric alternating layers of cellular and fibro-vascular tissue ; and in Zamia and Encephalartos, besides the pith, there are only two very thick layers, one of fibro- vascular, and the other, which is also the exterior one, of cellular tissue. The great peculiarity of the Conifer a, and which distin- guishes them as well from Cycadea as from every other family, is the remarkable uniformity of their woody tissue, which consists of
54 lAnnean Society, [Feb. 4,
slender tubes, furnished on the sides parallel to the medullary rays with one or more rows of circular or angular dots ; but in Cycadecs no such uniformity is observable, their tissue, as in other phsenoga- mous plants, consisting of two kinds of vessels, namely of slender transparent tubes, without dots or markings, and of dotted, reticulated and spiral vessels, which are capable of being unrolled. The former are identical with the fibrous or woody tissue, whilst the latter, which form a part of each bundle, can only be compared to the strictly vascular tissue of other plants. These dotted vessels in Cycadea bear a con- siderable resemblance to the vessels of Coniferce, and especially to those of Dammara and Araucaria, from the dots being disposed in rows, and confined to the two vertical sides of the vessel only, and they are moreover alternate, as in the two genera just mentioned. In CycadecB, however, the dots present much less regularity in number and size than in Conifer a, not only in different vessels of the same bundle, but in different parts of the same vessel, forming one, two, three, four, and five rows ; and they are not always confined to the vertical sides, but appear in some cases to follow the entire circle of the vessel. Their form is oblong, or elliptical, in Cycas re- valuta, circinalis, glauca, and speciosa, Zamia furfur acea and pumilat as well as in Encephalartos horridus and spiralis; but they are sometimes longer, narrower and nearly linear, giving the vessel the appearance of being marked with transverse stripes. The vessels in all present so much similarity, that no generic distinction can be drawn from them. The dots are always arranged dia- gonally. The dotted vessels of Zamia furfuracea and pumila were observed to unroll spirally in the form of a band, pre- senting a striking resemblance to those of Ferns. The band was found to vary in breadth in different vessels, and was furnished with transverse rows, composed of two, three, or more dots. The coils followed the direction of the dots, and the unrolling was from right to left. In Cycas revoluta dotted vessels frequently occur with a single row of dots ; but, from the circumstance of the dots on both sides being in view at the same time, they are liable to be mistaken as having a double row on each side. Besides the dotted vessels, there occurs throughout Cycadece another variety, differing but little from the ordinary spiral vessel, except in the tendency of the coils to unite. In some vessels the coils are free, and the fibre ex- hibits frequently, at intervals, bifurcations or narrow loops ; in others the coils unite at one or both sides, in which case the vessel presents a series either of rings or bars ; the fibre then is with difficulty un-
1840.] Linnean Society, 55
rolled, and it often breaks off into rings, or the bars separate at the point where the coils unite, which is generally on the perpendicular sides of the vessel. In other cases the vessels are distinctly reticulated, and they then exhibit a striking analogy to the dotted cellules in Cycas revoluta. All these modifications are frequently to be observed in the same vessel in Zamia furfur acea andpumila, a fact which affords conclusive evidence of the accuracy of the theory advanced by Meyen, which refers the spiral, annular, reticulated, and dotted vessels to a common type. The dots and stripes are evidently the thinnest por- tions of the tube, being most probably parts of the primitive mem- brane remaining uncovered by the matter subsequently deposited on the walls.
The cellular tissue of Cycadees consists of tolerably regular paren- chyma, composed of prismatic, six-sided cellules. In the species of Zamia and Encephalartos, so often referred to, the walls of the cellules appear to be of a uniform thickness and transparency, and destitute both of dots or markings ; but in the adult fronds of Cycas revoluta a different structure presents itself, for the walls of the cellules are furnished with numerous elliptical, obliquely transverse dots or spaces, where the membrane is so exceedingly delicate and trans- parent as to give to the cellules the appearance of being perforated by holes, the intervening spaces being covered by incrustating matter, disposed in the form of confluent bands, which, when viewed under the microscope, resemble a kind of network. The dots or spaces uncovered by incrustating matter, are generally of a large size, and occur more particularly on the vertical sides of the cellules, a band usually running along the middle of the two opposite sides. Tlie bands vary in breadth, as do the dots, and they not unfrequently exhibit minute transparent points or spaces where the solid matter forming the band shows a tend- ency to separate. The extreme delicacy and transparency of the dots or spaces of whatever size, appear fully to prove that they are parts of the primitive membrane of the cellule, which are un- covered by the incrustating matter. A solution of iodine will be found of great service in determining the actual existence of the membrane at those parts ; for although it does not materially alter its colour, it tends very much to diminish its transparency and ren- ders it distinctly visible, so as to leave no doubt that the spaces are not openings. The bands are evidently the result of a partial ligni- fication ; and indeed no better example can be offered than Cycas revoluta to illustrate and confirm the correctness of the views ad-
56 Linnean Society. [Feb. 4,
vanced by Schleiden as to the origin of the bands and fibres in the cellules and vessels of plants. Being anxious to ascer- tain whether the bands exist at an early period, the author had recourse to the examination of a young undeveloped frond, about two weeks old, and he was much gratified by finding his previous suspicions fully confirmed ; the cellules then being of a uniform transparency, presenting neither bands nor dots, but furnished with a distinct cytoblast or nucleus, which was found to have entirely dis- appeared from those cellules in which the incrustating matter was visible, proving that the incrustating matter is formed at the expense of the nucleus. The matter forming the bands is continuous, and is evidently not formed by a coalescing of spiral fibres, as some might suppose ; for it is perfectly solid, and shows no disposition to un- roll or to break up into fibres. The bands most probably originated from the shrinking up of the incrustating substance, which at first was equally diff^used in a fluid state over the walls, and which, from the mere effects of consolidation, aided by the distention, and per- haps enlargement of the cellule, would naturally leave portions of the primitive membrane uncovered. That the dotted and reticulated vessels in Cycadeae are of the same nature, and originate in a similar way as the cellules just described, there seems no reasonable ground to doubt. The parenchymatous cellules in Cycas circinalis, glauca, and speciosa resemble those of Zamia and EncepJialartos in having their walls of a nearly uniform thickness and transparency, being but rarely furnished mth a few elliptical obliquely transverse spaces or dots. The cellules in Cycas revoluta vary both in size and structure, some being three or four times longer, whilst others are still longer and narrower, and furnished with more numerous and much smaller dots, which are not confined to the sides, but are disposed around the tube. These last, which have been observed also in Cycas. glauca and circinalis, present an evident transition to. the dotted vessels.
The whole of the CycadecB are supplied with numerous gummife- rous canals, often of great length, and uniformly furnished with distinct cellular walls of considerable thickness, and which have been accurately described and figured by Professor Morren in a recent memoir.
Notwithstanding the analogies presented by their reproductive organs, the author considers the Cycadeee as related to Conifer(B only in a remote degree, and that they constitute the remains of a class of plants which belonged to a former vegetation.
1840.] Linnean Society, Bj
February 18. The Lord Bishop of Norwich, President, in the Chair.
The Rev. George Isherwood, of Old Windsor, was elected a Fel- low of the Society.
Mr. George T. Fox, F.L.S., exhibited a specimen of the Phryno- soma cornutum (Agama cornuta of Harlan) from Texas.
Mr. Cameron, A.L.S., presented a specimen of a new fern (Cibo- Hum Baromez, J. Sm.) which has lately borne fructification, for the first time in this country, in the garden of the Birmingham Horti- cultural Society. A description of the plant by Mr. Westcott ac- companied the specimen. The fern has been cultivated for some years in the gardens as the Agnus Scythicus or Vegetable Lamb {Polypodium Baromez, Linn.), but whether identical with the plant of Linnaeus is a question still undetermined, as there happens to be j/ no specimen in his herbarium, and the description alone is too meagre to settle the point. Mr. Westcott is however in possession of a spe- cimen of a fern collected in Mexico by Mr. Ross, which closely re- sembles the plant of the gardens, and should they prove to be iden- tical, all doubt will be removed as to the claims of the present plant to be regarded as the Baromez of liinnseus, which is a native of China.
The following is Mr. Westcott's description of the species :—
Rhizoma densely clothed with yellow woolly articulated hairs. Stipes about 7 feet high, roundish, of a dark reddish brown colour, more or less covered with tufts of woolly hairs near the base, naked for about half its height : upper part flexuous from the point where the pinnae commence. Frond bipinnate ; pinna alternate, ovate-lan- ceolate, acuminate, smooth, under surface glaucous, upper surface dark green ; those pinnae bearing the sori curved, the barren pinnsB straight ; pinnules pinnatifid, alternate, linear-lanceolate, acuminate ; upper ones decurrent ; lower ones shortly petiolate ; lobes oblong, sharply serrated, more or less truncated, acute ; margins somewhat revolute, lobes in the upper row of each pinnula somewhat larger than those of the lower row, and those nearest to the rachis in the upper row the largest of all. Venation in the barren pinnae branched, in the fertile pinnae simple ; veins alternate. Indusia pouch-like, coriaceous sessile, situate on the apex of a vein at the margin, and near the base of the lobe of the pinnula : dehiscence by a transverse
No. VII. — Proceedings of the Linnean Society.
58 Linnean Society, [March 3,
slit near the apex ; outer valve white, inner valve brown, and form- ing a persistent operculum or lid. Thecce roundish, stipitate, half surrounded by an articulated ring. Sporules numerous, angular.
Read, " Observations on a certain Crystalline Matter found on the recently cut surfaces of the Wood of the Red Cedar." By Edwin J. Quekett, Esq., F.L.S.
Mr. Quekett remarked, that on the recently cut surfaces of the wood of the Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiand) a crystalline matter is observed to form, which puts on the appearance of a mouldiness, but which, when viewed with a magnifying glass, is seen to consist of innumerable extremely minute crystals of an acicular form. The substance was observed to form on the duramen or heart wood only, and not universally, but in patches. It is easily volatilized by heat, and gives out the well-known odour of the wood. Mr. Quekett showed that the duramen of the red cedar contains an abundance of a concrete volatile oil, on which the peculiar odour depends, and that the crystalline substance is a compound formed between the air and the oil, for when the latter was obtained from the wood, and ex- posed to the action of the air, it was soon also found to be covered with the same acicular crystals. This substance, which possesses many of the properties of benzoic acid, Mr. Quekett considers new, and he proposed for it the name of Cedarine.
March 3.
Mr. Brown, V.P., in the Chair.
Mr. Francis Boyle Garty, of Camberwell, and the Rev. William Strong Hore, M.A., of Devonport, were elected Fellows ; and Mr. Frederick John Bird, of Wilmington Square, was elected an Associate of the Society.
Mr. Ward, F.L.S. , exhibited a specimen of the Agnus Scythicus, or Vegetable Lamb, from the collection of the Apothecaries' Com- pany.
Read, " A Note on the Fern known as Aspidium Baromez." By Mr. John Smith, A.L.S.
This plant, of which a description by Mr. Wcstcott was read at the preceding Meeting, and of which an abstract has been given.
1840.] Linnean Society, 59
was shown by Mr. Smith to be a legitimate species of the genus Cibotiunit with which it agrees in the venation of its frond, the dis- position of its sori, and in the structure and texture of its indusium.
March 17. Mr. Forster, V.P., in the Chair.
William Ifill, M.D., of Welbeck Street ; Edwin Lankester, M.D., of Campsall Hall, near Doncaster ; and Lieut. William Munro, of Her Majesty's 39th regiment of foot, were elected Fellows of the Society.
The following addresses of congratulation to Her Majesty and to His Royal Highness Prince Albert of Saxe Coburg and Gotha, on occasion of Her Majesty's marriage, were read from the Chair, and unanimously adopted by the Meeting, viz.
" To the Queen's most Excellent Majesty. *' The humble Address of the President, Council, and Fellows
of the Linnean Society of London. ** Most Gracious Sovereign, ** We, Your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Pre- sident, Council, and Fellows of the Linnean Society of London, beg leave to approach Your Majesty, humbly to offer our heart-felt con- gratulations on the joyful occasion of Your Majesty's nuptials with His Royal Hijghness Prince Albert of Saxe Coburg and Gotha.
" Deeply impressed with feelings of loyalty and devotion towards Your Majesty, we hail this auspicious event as an assurance of last- ing happiness to Your Majesty, and of permanent blessings to the British Empire, and we most fervently implore the blessings of Al- mighty God upon Your Majesty, that through His mercy and good- ness He may be pleased to extend His watchful care over the lives and the happiness of Your Majesty and Your Majesty's Royal Con- sort.'*
** To His Royal Highness Prince Albert of Saxe Coburg and Gotha. " The humble Address of the President, Council, and Fellows
of the Linnean Society of London. " May it please Your Royal Highness, " We, the President, Council, and Fellows of the Linnean So- ciety of London, beg leave humbly to present to Your Royal High-
60 Linnean Society. [March 1 7,
ness our cordial congratulations on the happy occasion of Your Royal Highnesses marriage with Her Majesty our gracious Queen and Patron.
** We hail this auspicious event as equally promoting the happi- ness of Her Majesty and the best interests of Her Majesty's aiFec- tionate and loyal people, and we most devoutly implore the blessings of Almighty God on Your Royal Highness, that He through His goodness and mercy may be pleased to extend His watchful care over the lives and happiness of our beloved Sovereign and Your Royal Highness."
Read " On some new Brazilian Plants allied to the Natural Order Burmanniacece." By John Miers, Esq., F.L.S.
Of the thirteen recorded species of Burmannia five are natives of Brazil, where they were found by Von Martins, who has not only accurately described them, but has given an able detail of the genus. The author, previous to his departure from Brazil, discovered five new plants, evidently allied to Burmannia, but which differ in many essential characters : from these he has established three new ge- nera, Dictyostega, Cymhocarpa, and Stemoptera : they possess the habit of Burmannia in their thickened rhizoma with branching fibres, an erect stem, almost naked, or furnished with a few distant bracti- form leaves and terminal flowers, with a tubular petaloid perian- thium, having a six-partite border, composed of three sepals and three petals ; stamens three, almost sessile, in the mouth of the tube be- low the petals ; anthers with the cells disjoined and opening trans- versely ; a simple style ; three stigmata and a capsule surmounted by the "withered perianth bursting irregularly ; seeds minute, resembling those of Orchidece ; but the most important difference consists in their having unilocular capsules, with three parietal placentae, while Bur- mannia has always a trilocular capsule, with central placentation, an essential difference, which entitles them to be considered, if not as forming a new natural order, at least as constituting a distinct sub-family. Allied to these are to be arranged three other plants, already recorded, the Apteria setacea of Nuttall, a native of North America, and Gonyanthes Candida and Gymnosiphon aphylhim of Blume, by whom they were found in Java. The author considers his genus Dictyostega as coming very near Apteria, which, however, from the drawing and description of Mr. Nuttall, would seem to re- semble Stemoptera still more closely in its habit, its seeds, and its large single flowers ; but it does not appear to possess the very
1840.] Linnean Society, 61
rfemarkable stamens of the latter genus, nor the habit or singular seeds of Dictyostega. He gives a full description of the charac- ters of his new genera and species, adding at the same time the character of Apteria and of Dr. Blume's two genera, so as to collect all the evidence yet known respecting the order of Burmanniacea. Of the genus Dictyostega he describes three species, which he found in Brazil, to which is to be added a fourth species, discovered by Mr. Schomburgk in British Guiana.
The following are their characters : —
DICTYOSTEGA.
Perianthium tubulosum, ovario adnatum, supem^ liberum : Umbo G-fido, laciniis 3 altemis minoribus. Stamina 3 : filamentis brevissimis : an- ther ec loculis disjunctis, transversim dehiscentibus. Sty his simplex. Stigmata 3. Capsula 1-locularis, sub 3-valvis, polysperma, apice dehi- scens : valvis medio placentiferis. Semina minuta, scobiformia, testa lax&, reticulata, pertranslucidiL, nucleo quintuple longiore vestita.
Plantae (brasilienses) rhizocarpeco, radice fibrosa, squamis membranaceis, imbricatis, ciliatis, incanis tectd. Caulis erectus, subfiexuosus, pallide purpurascens, subsolitarius, rarius ramifenis, et tunc ramis 1 — 3 erectis, alternis, trunco consimilibvs. Folia bracteiformia, subsessilia, adpressa. Jnflorescentia terminalis, dichotome racemosa, vel subum- bellato-cymosa, floribus purpurascentibus, pedicellatis.
1. D. orobanchioides, caxile ereeto simplici vel ramifero, racemis geminis, floribus nutantibus unibracteatis, bracteis cum pedicellis alternantibus, capsula subvalvatd ecostatH longitudinaliter dehiscente. — Monte Corco- vado, Rio de Janeiro.
2. D. umbellata, caule ereeto simplicissimo, foliis erecto-patulis, umbella simplici 6 — 9-flora, floribus erectis, pedicellis basi bracteatis, ovario ecostato. — Serra dos Orgaos, Prov. Rio de Janeiro.
3. D. costata, caule ereeto simplici, floribus erectis, cym& bibracteal^, pe- dicellis ebracteatis, capsule evalvi 6-costata apice dehiscenti. — Rio de Janeiro.
4. )S>. Schomburgkii, caule ereeto subsimplici, racemis geminis paucifloris, floribus unibracteatis, bracteis pedicello oppositis, perianthio medio baud constricto, laciniis obtusioribus, capsul4 6-costata apice dehiscenti. — Guiana.
CYMBOCARPA.
Perianthium tubulosum, ovario adnatum, supem^ liberum : Umbo 6-fido, laciniis tribus altemis minoribus. Stamina omniiio Dictyostegee. Stylus simplex. Stigmata 3-loba, lobis gibboso-rotundatis, comubus 2
62 Linnean Society, [March 17,
subulatis erectis instructis. Ovarium gibboso-3-gonum, l-loculare, placentis 3 parietalibus. Cajtsula 1-locularis, latere unico angulo su- periore tantiim dehiscens. Semina scobiformia, numerosissima, testa reticulata nucleo vix excedente.
PlantsB (brasilienses)^ rhizocarpetB, radice Jihrosd. Caulis simplex, suh- flexuosus, erectus, albescens. Folia sessilia, bracteiformia, erecta, aut adpressa. Inflorescentia dichotome spicata, paucijlora, fioribus fia- vescenti-albidis, basi bracteatis, cum pedicellis brevissimis summo abrupte declinatis geniculatis.
1 . Cymbocarpa refracta. — Monte Corcovado, Rio de Janeiro.
STEMOPTERA.
Perianthium ovario adnatum, supra liberuin, subinfundibuliforme : favce turgida sacculis 3 interioribus aucta : limbo 6-partito, laciniis acutis, aestivatione marginibus induplicatis, 3 alternis brevioribus. Stamina 3, fauci adnata : filamentis complanatis, e margine sacculorum orienti- bus bifurcatis, ramulo singulo antherifero alato. Ovarium turbinatum, l-loculare, placentis 3 parietalibus. AS^^/wslongitudinestaminum. Stig- mata 3, recurvata, apice glandulifera. Capsula 1-locularis, polysperma, subtrivalvis, apice 3-fisso dehiscens, Placentce 3, parietales. Semina numerosissima, scobiformia, testa nucleo vix excedente, reticulata, are- olis elongatis obliqu^ dispositis.
PlantsB (brasilienses) rhizocarpecB, radice fibrosd. Caulis erectus, subdi- chotome ramosus, ramis subjlexuosis, pallidis, subpurpurascentibus. Fo- lia pauca, sessilia, erecta, bracteiformia, pallida. Inflorescentia termi- nalis, unijlora. Flores cceteris mojores, ebracteati, purpurascentes, Ap- terise Nutt. Jiaud absimiles.
1 . Stemoptera lilacina. — In uliginosis ad Serra dos Orgaos Prov. Rio de Janeiro.
All the species are described at length in the paper, and their cha- racters are further illustrated by drawings, with details of the parts of fructification. The author remarks, that upon the same principle that Apostasiacete have been separated from Orchidea, and Xyridecd from Restiaceee, these plants ought to constitute an order distinct from BurmanniaceiB ; but the difference between the unilocular cap- sule with parietal placentation and the trilocular capsule with axile placentation, which at first sight seems to offer a wide and well- founded distinction, appears of less value when we consider that the extensive order Gentianece presents similar differences, toge- ther with every possible gradation of transition from one extreme to the other. He therefore inclines to the view of preserving all
1840.] lAnnean Society, 63
within the natural order Burmanniaceee, dividing it into two sub- families, viz. 1. Burmanniece, which will contain only the single genus Burmannia (and perhaps the Gonyanthes of Blume may be found to belong also to this section) ; 2. Dictyostegea, com- prising Dictyostega, Cymbocarpa, Stemoptera, Apteria, Gonyanthes, and Gymnosiphon. He then proceeds to show the close affinity which Burmanniacea bear to Orchidea, which often also present nearly a naked stem, with imperfectly developed leaves, and instances are moreover known in which they exhibit three distinct stamens and three stigmata : they have also an unilocular ovarium, with parietal placentation ; there exists also a close resemblance in the structure of the walls of the capsule, and there is hardly any difference in the shape and structure of the seeds of Dictyostega and some species of Pleurothallis, which have both a transparent reticulated testa, show- ing distinctly the included nucleus suspended from the apex. The pollen of these plants also bears much resemblance to that of Or- chideae, in being inclosed in a peculiar anther-case, and consisting of coarse grains cohering in waxy masses. Dictyostega orobanchioides also offers a beautiful illustration of the emission of pollen tubes, which are seen penetrating the stigmata in crowded bundles of cot- tony filaments, each thread being clavately terminated by its re- spective grain of pollen.
There was also read a paper, entitled, " On the existence of Spiral Cells in the Seeds of Acanthacea." By Mr. Richard Kippist. Com- municated by Prof. Don, Libr. L.S.
After briefly enumerating the other natural families in whose seeds spiral cells had been previously observed, the author proceeds to de- scribe those of a plant brought from Upper Egypt by Mr. Holroyd (Acanthodium spicatum, Delile), whose peculiar appearance when placed under the microscope, first led him to examine those of other Acanthacea, in which family the existence of spiral cells had not be- fore been noticed. The entire surface of the seed in Acanthodium is covered with whitish hairs, which are appressed, and adhere closely to it in the dry state, being apparently glued together at their ex- tremities. On being placed in water, these hairs are set free, and spread out on all sides, they are then seen to l^e clusters of from five to twenty spiral cells, which adhere firmly together in their lower portions while their upper parts are free, separating from the cluster at different heights, and expanding in all directions like plumes, forming a very beautiful microscopic object. The free portions of the
64 , Linnean Society. [March 1 7,
cells readily unroll, exhibiting the spire formed of one, two, or occa- sionally of three fibres, which may sometimes be seen to branch, and not unfrequently break up into rings. Throughout the whole length of the cell the coils are nearly contiguous ; in the lower part they are united by connecting fibrils, and towards the base of the adherent portion become completely reticulated. The testa is a semitrans- parent membrane formed of nearly regular hexagonal cells, whose centre is occupied by an opake mass of grumous matter. Those cells which surround the bases of the hairs are considerably elon- gated, and, gradually tapering into transparent tubes, appear to oc- cupy the interior of the spiral clusters. Some of these appearances were noticed by Delile, who described the Acanthodium in the splendid work on Egypt, published by the French Institute, where also a slightly magnified figure of the seed will be found, but with- out representing the spiral cells, which Delile does not appear to have detected.
Two species of Blepharis are mentioned as possessing a structure very similar to that of Acanthodium spicatum, differing chiefly in the smaller and more uniform diameter of the spiral cells, and in their thicker fibre, which is always single and loosely coiled.
The seed of Ruellia formosa on being placed in water develops from every part of its surface single short thick tapering tubes, within which in some cases a spiral fibre is loosely coiled ; whilst in others the place of the spiral fibre is supplied by distant rings.
In the seeds of Ruellia littoralis, Phaylopsis glutinosa, and Barleria noctiflora, the whole surface becomes covered with separate tubes, very similar in form, but destitute of spiral fibre, and terminating in a minute pore, from which streams of mucilage are discharged.
Those of several species of Barleria, Lepidagathis, &c. are entirely covered with long tapering simple hairs, which expand in water, and like the rest are enveloped in a thick coat of mucilage.
In all the foregoing species the hairs occupy the entire surface of the seed, and are usually directed towards its apex, though they occur often most abundantly at the edges ; in others they are only found attached to a marginal ring of a different texture from the rest of the seed. This is the case in Strobilanthus lupulina, Blechum Brownii, and Ruellia secunda. The seeds of many plants of this family are wholly destitute both of spiral cells or of any other appendages possessing hygroscopic properties, such for example as Acanthus mollis and ilicifolius, Dipteracanthus erectus, and several sj^ecies of Justicia and Eranthemum.
1840.] Linnean Society. G5
April 7.
Mr. Forster, V.P., in the Chair.
The Rev. John Berrington, A.M., of Kingston, Surrey, and Si- gismond Rucker, Jun., Esq., of Wandsworth, were elected Fellows ; and Mr. Henry Letheby, of Pentonville, was elected an Associate of the Society.
Dr. Farre, F.L.S., exhibited specimens of a singular form of gall on the leaves of a species of oak from Mexico. The gall consisted of an aggregation of hollow cylindrical tubes, nearly an inch in length, and furnished with a fringed orifice. The tubes were remarkable for their elegance and uniformity; their colour was white, suffused with red, especially towards the apex.
Mr. Yarrell, F.L.S., exhibited a specimen of a satin-like mass of Conferva fluviatilis, which grew in a water meadow near Totness. A spring, which flows only in winter, rises in the meadow, and this substance is taken from narrow gutters, from one of which, twelve inches wide, a piece was taken up which measured seventy-nine feet in length, so firm and tough was its consistence ; and another piece broke off at thirty-nine feet. In consistence and appearance it bore considerable resemblance to a piece of cotton wadding, but of a firmer texture. A portion was carefully examined under the micro- scope, and found to consist entirely of an interwoven mass of filaments of Conferva fluviatilis. The plant was compared with the authentic specimen of that species preserved in the Linnaean Herbarium, and was seen to differ only in the greater length of the articulations. The under surface of the mass was of a bright green colour, but the upper surface was white from the effects of direct exposure to the air and light, which had caused the death of the plant at that part.
Read, a continuation of Mr. Smith's "Arrangement of the Genera of Ferns."
April 21.
The Lord Bishop of Norwich, President, in the Chair.
Read, a paper by John Blackwall, Esq., F.L.S., entitled " The Difference in the Number of Eyes with which Spiders are provided. No. VIII. — Proceedings of the Linnean Society.
66 Linnean Society. [May 25
proposed as the Basis of their distribution into Tribes ; with the characters of a new Family and three new Genera of Spiders."
Mr. Blackwall begins by stating his objections to the bases of ar- rangement adopted by MM. Walckenaer and Dufour in the subdi- vision of the order Araneidea, and proceeds to give his reasons for preferring a division founded on the number of eyes ; in conformity with which he proposes three tribes, viz. 1. Octonoculata; 2. Senocu- lina; 3. BinocuUna.
In the first tribe he proposes three new genera, two of them be- longing to a family which he characterizes under the name of Cini- floridce : these genera he also characterizes under the names of Ciniflo, founded on the Clubiona atrox of Latreille, and Operaria, compri- sing the Theridion benignum, Walck., Drassus exiguus, Blackw., and Drassus viridissimus, Walck. The third genus characterized by Mr. Blackwall, is referred by him to the family of Agelenidcd, under the name of Cavator : it is founded on the Clubiona saxatilis, Blackw.
May 5. ITie Lord Bishop of Norwich, President, in the Chair.
Read, " Additional Observations on some Plants allied to the natural order Burmanniacese." By John Miers, Esq., F.L.S.
These observations have reference chiefly to the relative position of the parts of the flower in the tribe of plants above-mentioned. The author remarks, that the stamina, placentae, and stigmata in these plants, are disposed in the same line, and opposite the inner series of the perianthium. The placentae are always invariably double ; and the stigmata in such cases as the present are to be re- garded as being made up of the confluent margins of the two ad- joining carpel-leaves, as suggested by Mr. Brown in his learned Memoir on Cyrtandrea lately published.
May 25.
The Lord Bishop of Norwich, President, in the Chair.
This day, the Anniversary of the birth-day of Linnaeus, and that appointed in the Charter for the election of Council and Officers ;
1840.] Linnean Society, Gf
the President opened the business of the meeting, and in stating the number of Members whom the Society had lost during the past year, gave the following notices of some of them : —
George, Duke of Marlborough, one of the Honorary Members, was distinguished for his botanical taste, and for his zeal in the cultiva- tion of exotic plants ; and the magnificent collection formed by him at White Knights was long one of the finest in this country, both ia regard to its extent, and the rarity and beauty of the specimens. His taste for Botany continued unabated to the last, and the col- lection established afterwards at Blenheim was chiefly cultivated under his own immediate superintendence.
John Bartlet, Esq.
John, Duke of Bedford, K.G. — This amiable and accomplished nobleman was a most munificent patron of the arts and sciences in general, and especially of Botany, in the cultivation of which he took great delight. We are indebted to him for several splendidly illustrated works, abounding in valuable practical remarks, on par- ticular tribes of plants, of which he had formed extensive collections at his magnificent seat of Woburn Abbey. William Beet ham, Esq.
William Christy, Jun., Esq. — Few persons cultivated Botany and Entomology with more ardour than Mr. Christy, who, to the regret of his friends, and to the loss of science, was cut off at an early age. His zeal and success in the pursuit of science were only equalled by his readiness and liberality to impart to others a portion of the stores which he had collected. He had formed an extensive Her- barium of British and Foreign Plants, and for that purpose had made several extensive tours in the British Isles, and had also vi- sited Madeira and Norway. His collection of dried plants, and books on Botany, he gave to the Botanical Society of Edinbui'gh, of which he was one of the institutors.
Lord diaries Spencer Churchill.
Richard Cotton, Esq.
Allan Cunningham, Esq. — This eminent botanist and traveller was born in the beginning of the year 1791, at Wimbledon, where his father (who was a native of Ayrshire) held the situation of gardener. His father took great pains with his education, and placed him, along with his younger brother, Richard, at an excellent academy at Putney, then conducted by the Rev. Mr. Adams. About the year 1808 both brothers were engaged in the office of the Royal Botanic (rardens at Kew, at the period when the second edition of the *Hor- ius Kewensis * was passing through the press. In the autumn of
68 Linnean Society. [May 25,
1814, having been appointed a Botanical Collector for the Royal Gardens, he left England, in company with Mr. James Bowie (who had also received a similar appointment), for the Brazils, where they remained two years, and among many other plants transmitted by them, were Gloxinia speciosa, Cereus speciosissimus, Jacaranda mi- mosifolia, and Calathea zehrina, then new to the Gardens. The two companions now separated, Mr. Bowie having received instructions to proceed to the Cape of Good Hope, and Mr. Cunningham to New South Wales, where he arrived in 1817, and shortly after joined the expedition into the interior of that colony, under Mr. Oxley, the Surveyor-General. On his return to Sydney he em- barked as botanist in the voyage of survey under the command of Lieutenant, now Captain Philip Parker King, of the Royal Navy. The survey continued four years, and during that period they cir- cumnavigated Australia several times, and visited Van Diemen's Land, Timor, and the Mauritius, at all of which places Mr. Cun- ningham formed extensive collections. After the conclusion of these voyages, Mr. Cunningham made several journeys into the interior of New South Wales, and subsequently visited Norfolk Island and New Zealand, where he remained several months. The fruits of his researches in the latter country are given in the ' Companion to the Botanical Magazine,' and ' Annals of Natural History.' After an absence of seventeen years, Mr. Cunningham returned to his native country, and continued to reside in the vicinity of Kew, until the melancholy tidings arrived of the death of his brother Richard, whom he was appointed to succeed in the quality of Colonial Botanist in New South Wales, where he again arrived in February 1837. In the following year he revisited New Zealand, and re- mained there during the whole of the rainy season, which produced serious effects upon a constitution already greatly debilitated, and on his return to Sydney his health visibly declined until the period of his death, which took place on the 27th of June last, at the age of 48. He was distinguished for his moral worth, singleness of heart, and enthusiastic zeal in the pursuit of science.
Davies Gilbert, Esq., F.R.S. — Mr. Davies Gilbert was distin- guished by his high attainments in science and literature, his simple and gentle manners, and his amiable purity of heart. He was the son of the Rev. Edward Giddy, and was born on the 6th of March, 1767, at St.Erth, in Cornwall.
Davies Giddy was a child of early intellectual promise, but his health was feeble, and he received not only the rudiments, but al- most the whole of his education under the paternal roof, guided and
1840.] lAnnean Society, 69
assisted by a father whose classical learning was of a high order. For about a twelvemonth he was placed under the tuition of the Rev. James Parken, Master of the Grammar School at Penzance, to which town his family removed for that purpose ; but he soon returned to Tredrea, which was long afterwards his favourite abode, to pursue his studies in a manner more congenial to his feelings. He had by this time formed a taste for mathematical investigations, in which he was aided by the knowledge, freely and kindly imparted, of the Rev. Malachi Hitchins of St. Hilary, a man whose name is well known and respected by practical astronomers. In the year 1782 he removed with his family to Bristol, and continued to cultivate the severer sciences with undiminished ardour. On the 12th of April, 1785, he entered as a Gentleman Commoner of Pembroke College in the University of Oxford, and soon attracted the notice of many of its Professors and Senior Residents. He resided pretty constantly there from his matriculation, except during the long vacations, till the year 1789, when he became an Honorary Master of Arts, but still continued to make long visits to his old College.
In November, 1791, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society, and formed a connexion with Dr. Maskelyne, Sir Joseph Banks, Mr. Cavendish, and other eminent members of that body, which terminated only with their lives. Though the sciences dependent on and connected with mathematics were the chief objects of his early studies, he was far from inattentive to the claims of Natural History on a portion of his leisure. He cultivated chiefly that branch of it which embraces the vegetable kingdom ; and an ac- quaintance formed in Cornwall with Dr. Withering, as well as his friendship with Dr. Beddoes and Dr. Sibthorp at Oxford, contri- buted to the same end. He became a Fellow of the Linnaean So- ciety in 1792, in which year he also served the office of Sheriff for his native county. In the year 1804 he was chosen one of the re- presentatives of the borough of Helston, and in 1806 *was returned in a new Parliament for that of Bodmin. In this seat he continued till the year 1832, when he ceased to be a member of the legislature. During the whole time of his continuance in Parliament, he was the encourager and indefatigable supporter of every measure connected with the advancement of science ; and by his representations and exertions many services were rendered to various scientific societies and institutions, in promoting whose prosperity and usefulness he was incessantly and zealously occupied. He took a prominent part in the inquiry relating to the currency, and published in 1811 a plain statement of the bullion question ; and he was also very
70 Linnean Society, [May 25,
active both in the House of Commons and out of it in the arrange- ment of the standard of weights and measures.
In 1806 he married Mary Anne Gilbert, and in 1817 he assumed the name of her family, in pursuance of the injunction contained in a will of her uncle, Charles Gilbert, Esq., of Eastbourne, in Sussex. By this marriage he had seven children, of whom only four sur- vived him ; John Davies Gilbert, Esq., the present Sheriff of Sussex, and three daughters.
He became a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1820, and was likewise Fellow of the Astronomical and Geological Societies. He continued to perform the office of Treasurer of the Royal So- ciety, till in 1 827 he became President of that distinguished body. In the year 1831 he retired from the chair, and was succeeded by His lloyal Highness the Duke of Sussex. In 1832 he received from the University of Oxford the Degree of Doctor of Laws, by Diploma.
His last visit to his native county took place in 1839. On lea- ving Cornwall he came through Exeter and Oxford to London, and returned after a few days to Oxford. This last journey, which was attended by some untoward circumstances, was too much for his sinking strength. On his return to London he fell into a state of lethargy, from which, though he was enabled to reach his home, he never fully recovered, but after lingering in this state for some time, he expired, on the 24th of December, 1839, and in the 73rd year of his age.
The Rev. Joseph Goodall, D.D., Provost of Eton College. — Dr. Goodall was ardently devoted to the study of Natural History, but more especially to Conchology, wdth which science he was tho- roughly acquainted, and his collection in that department was re- garded as one of the most valuable in this country. He was ever a warm and zealous friend of this Society.
The Reverend Patrick Keith. — Mr. Keith long and successfully cultivated the interesting department of Vegetable Physiology, to which he published an Introduction in 1816, under the title of * System of Physiological Botany,' in two volumes, 8vo. The work contained the fullest and best account of the subject at that time in the English language, and was, moreover, enriched by nu- merous original remarks. Mr. Keith was likewise the author of a Botanical Lexicon, published in 1837, and three separate Memoirs, printed in the 11th, 12th and 16th volumes of the Society's Trans- actions ; the first on the Formation of the Vegetable Epidermis, the second on the Development of the Seminal Germ, and the third on the Origin of Buds. Several jxipers on botanical subjects, from
1840.] Linnean Society. *J\
the pen of Mr. Keith, occur also in the Philosophical Magazine and Annals of Natural History.
Mr. Keith had long been suffering from severe illness, which ter- minated in his death on the 25th of January last, at the age of 71, at the parsonage of Stalisfield, in Kent, of which parish he had been for many years vicar. He was a native of Scotland, and received his education at the University of Glasgow.
William Kent, Esq. — Mr. Kent was a zealous botanist and hor- ticulturist, and formerly possessed an exten&lve garden at Clapton, where, among many other choice plants, he successfully cultivated the beautiful Nelumbium speciosum, and other tender aquatics, of which he was a liberal distributor to his friends. His health obli- ging him to retire to Bath, he lost the means of indulging his inclina- tion to horticulture on so large a scale ; but of his garden on Bath- wick Hill, it might truly be said that there never perhaps were so many rare plants cultivated together in so small a space. Notwith- standing he laboured under a painful complaint, he was also happily able to amuse himself by landscape j)ainting ; and at the same time he was ever active in promoting useful institutions, moral, scientific or literary.
Don Mariano Lagasca, Professor of Botany, and Director of the Royal Botanic Garden at Madrid, was a native of the province of Arragon, where his father followed the occupation of a farmer. He was sent at an early age to the Gymnasium of Tarragona, and after pursuing the course of study prescribed at that institution, he re- paired to Madrid to complete himself for the medical profession, for which he had evinced a predilection. At Madrid he had the good fortune to attend the lectures, and to acquire the friendship, of the celebrated Cavanilles, at that time Professor of Botany in the Spanish capital, and these circumstances laid the foundation of the eminence to which he afterwards attained. In 1822, on the assembling of the Cortes, he was returned Deputy for his native province, and on the overthrow of the constitutional form of go- vernment in November of the following year, he was obliged to consult his safety by flight, first to Gibraltar, and afterwards to this country, v/here his high moral character, amiable disposition, aiKi eminent talents, gained him universal esteem and respect.
Spain, long famed as the granary of ancient Rome, is known to surpass all other countries in the great variety of those grasses which are cultivated for human food, such as wheat, barley, rye and oats : and many of those whom I am now addressing may remem- ber the extensive and interesting collection of Spanish Cerealia cul-
7^ Linnean Society, [May 25,
tivatcd by Professor Lagasca in the garden belonging to the Society of Apothecaries at Chelsea. The publication of a * Ceres and Flora Hispanica * had long been a favourite object with him, but which he did not live to accomplish. He departed this life in the 58th year of his age, on the 23rd of June last, at the palace of his early friend and school associate, the present Bishop of Barcelona, who hearing of his infirm state of health, had invited him to partake of his hospitality and kindness, in the hope that the milder air of Cata- lonia might be the means of restoring him. His remains were ho- noured with a public funeral, and an oration was pronounced over him by his friend Don Augustin Yanez, Professor of Natural History at Barcelona.
It was in Systematic Botany that Professor Lagasca had more particularly distinguished himself, and he has added greatly to our knowledge of various families of plants, such as Umbelliferce, Dip- saceee and Compositce, of one of the groups of which, the Lahiatiflorce, he may be regarded as the founder.
James Dottin Maycock, M.D. — Dr. Maycock is deserving of no- tice as the author of a Flora of Barbadoes, in which island he had long resided. The work forms a catalogue of the indigenous as well as cultivated plants of that island, and contains besides a number of interesting notices on their oeconomical uses. The author has fully established the identity of the species which aiFords the Barbadoes aloes, with the Aloe vulgaris, accurately figured in the ' Flora Grseca.*
William Mills, Esq.
Sir John St. Auhyn, Bart., F.R.S. — A distinguished cultivator of the science of Mineralogy, and who possessed one of the most ex- tensive and valuable collections in that department of Natural His- tory ever formed in this country.
James Sharpe, Esq.
The Rev. Thomas, Lord Walsingham.
Amongst the Foreign Members occur —
John Frederick Blumenhach, M.D., Professor of Medicine in the University of Gottingen, Foreign Member of the Royal Society of London, and Associate of the Royal Academy of Sciences of the French Institute, was pre-eminently distinguished by his important researches in General Anatomy and Physiology, which he continued to prosecute during a long life ardently devoted to the advancement of science. He was equally remarkable for the extent and variety of his knowledge and the philosophical sagacity of his views. Professor Blumenbach died on the 22nd of January last, at the advanced age of 88.
1840.] Linnean Society, 73
Joseph Francis, Baron Jacquin, Professor of Botany and Che- mistry, and Director of the Imperial Botanic Garden at Vienna, to which appointments he succeeded on the resignation of his father, the celebrated traveller and botanist. He was author of Ecloga Plantarum, a folio work, containing descriptions and coloured figures of the new and rare plants which flowered in the gardens under his care, and also of a valuable work on birds.
Baron Jacquin was distinguished for his urbanity and kindness, especially to strangers ; and few cultivators of science visited the Austrian capital without partaking of his good offices and hospita- lity. He died at Vienna, on the 10th of December, in the 74th year of his age.
The President also announced that seventeen Fellows and four Associates had been elected since the last Anniversary.
It was then moved by the President, and unanimously agreed to by the meeting ; '* That the cordial thanks of the Society be given to Dr. Boott on his retirement from the office of Secretary, for the in- cessant attention which he has shown to the duties of that office, and for the ability, zeal, and urbanity with which he has discharged those duties."
At the election, which subsequently took place, the Lord Bishop of Norwich was elected President; Edward Forster, Esq., Trea- surer ; John Joseph Bennett, Esq., Secretary ; and Richard Taylor, Esq., Under-Secretary. The following five Fellows were elected into the Council in the room of others going out; viz. Thomas Bell, Esq., George Loddiges, Esq., Gideon Mantell, Esq., LL.D., Richard Horsman Solly, Esq., and Sir George Thomas Staunton, Bart.
June 2. Mr. Forster, V.P., in the Chair.
William Felkin, Esq., of Nottingham, was el6cted a Fellow of the Society.
Mr. George Francis, F.L.S., exhibited a portion of the trunk of the Lepurandra saccidora (Graham, Cat. Bomb. PI. p. 193.), from Western India, of the bark of which sacks and bags are made.
Mr. Ranch exhibited a specimen of the fruit of Salisburia adianti- folia, which was grown last year in the Imperial Botanic Garden at Vienna.
No. IX. — Proceedings of the Linnkan Socibtt.
74 lAnnean Society. [JunelG,
Read, " On the reproductive Organs of Equisetum." By Mr. Joseph Henderson, Gardener to Earl Fitzwilliam, at Milton Park, communicated by the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, F.L.S.
Mr. Henderson's observations were made on Equisetum hyemale and other species, and embrace the entire period of development of the sporae and of the thecse containing them. The theca is in the first instance filled with cells of extreme tenuity, in the interior of which the sporae afterwards take their origin. After the appearance of the sporae the containing cells gradually become thickened, and sepa- rate from each other; and at a still later period their walls are marked by spiral sutures, by means of which they are subdivided into two narrow bands with broad and rounded ends. As the sporae approach maturity these bands separate at the sutures, and the con- taining cell is thus resolved into its component parts, the supposed filaments and antherae of Hedwig. The sporae, when ripe, have a double membrane, which is rendered evident by the addition of tincture of iodine. In the immature state of the thecae, up to the time when the spiral lines become distinctly marked on the integu- ment of the sporae, they form transparent membranous reticulated bags,