422 Aliscellaneous. therefore be regarded as abortive receptacles. In the elon-gated receptacle, straight spiral vessels are met with. A spiral vessel never extends to the fruit. The parts which Sprengel years ago, Blume and Presl at present consider to be male organs of fructification and indistinctly figured, have been more accurately examined by Prof. Link, and illustrated by drawings. They are long hollow filaments, separated by septa into articulations, generally simple, rarely ramified ; the last articulation is thicker^ and filled with a delicate granular mass. It may also at times be observed that this mass is exuded at the last articulation, and surrounds this as a crust. These parts are frequently longer than the capsules, and are easily distinguished from the young capsules. It is certainly probable that they are the stamina of ferns, and Prof. Link has indeed found them, after frequent search, in most of the ferns which he subjected to microscopical examination. The germination of ferns is simple; the shell of the seed bursts re-gularly or irregularly, out of which the embryo grows forth in a foliaceous expansion, which subsequently first forms a bud, whence the plant proceeds in the form which it retains. This mode of germination presents, therefore, a similarity to that of monocotyledons, only that here the evolution of the embryo is a state, and one of rapid transition. POTAMOGETON PRMLONGUS, This rare plant occurs plentifully in the river Waveney, which divides Norfolk from SuiFolk, in the neighbourhood of Harleston and Bungay, where I gathered it in June last. The only other station, to the south of the Tweed, is in ditches near Caversham Bridge near Reading, where it was found by Mr. Borrer in May 1836. — Charles C. Babington. THE COCOS DE MER. The singular plant known by the above title was for many years a source of inquiry, and gave rise to some most absurd and monstrous conjectures. Its gigantic fruit was occasionally picked up floating at sea, and sometimes carried by the currents to various shores of the Indian ocean. Astonishing virtues were attributed to it, and were supposed to be communicated to medicines drunk out of its
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