248 Mr. J. W. Howell on the Structure of the Capsule Some of these questions comprise several others. To solve them two things only are necessary, accuracy and perseve-rance. M. Vaucher has afforded us an example of both these qualities. His history of the Conferva is remarkable for its precision in the explanation of new and delicate facts. His last work required the average duration of man's life, and we may say, in general, that during sixty years M. Vaucher rarely turned aside from botany. From it he derived lively gratifi-cation ; the result of his works has enriched the science ; let us hope that others may endeavour to imitate him, and let us ever religiously preserve the memory of a philosopher so well entitled to our respectful recollection. Alph. DeC. XXXVI. — On some hitherto unnoticed peculiarities in the Structure of the Capsule of Papaveraceae ; and on the Nature of the Stigma of Cruciferas. By J. W. Howell, Esq., M.R.C.S. The capsule of Papaver apparently bears so close a resem-blance to that of Nymphaea, that it forms one of DeCandohVs reasons for considering the Papaveraceae and Nymph&acece to be allied*. The capsule in each genus is syncarpous, with ovuliferous dissepiments, and is crowned with a many-rayed stigma, the number of rays corresponding to that of the dis-sepiments. The chief structural difference hitherto observed between these capsules consists in that of Nymphcea being composed of several carpels surrounding the axis, and having the dissepiments formed by the juxtaposition of the ovulife-rous sides of the perfect cells with intermediate plates of con-necting cellular tissue ; whilst in Papaver the inflected sides of the conjoined carpels not being continued to the axis, the imperfect ovuliferous dissepiments project only midway into the cavity of the capsule, and thus leave it one-celled. On a more attentive examination, however, a difference will * " Ob structuram fructus et stigmatis Papaveri valcle similem." — Regni Veget. Syst. Nat. vol. ii. p. 42. This similarity of structure is repeatedly alluded to by this author; thus, in " Nymphceacea — Styli * * * connati stigmatibus supra urceolum peltatim (exacte ut in Papaver e) radiatis basi connatis apice liberis," vol. ii. p. 39. Again : " * * * structura fructus Papaveris parum recedit a vera Nupharis structura," p. 43. Again : " Papaveracece accedunt hinc mediante Papa-vere ad Nymph&aceas," p. 68. In ' Flore Franc,,' DeCandclle included Nymphcea and its immediately allied genera in Papaveracece, in which this great botanist followed the example of Linnaeus, who had previously referred Nymphcea to his twenty-seventh Order, Rhceadece, which very nearly corresponds with the Papa-veracece of modern authors.
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