Botanical Notices from Spain. 263 his inspection, who wrote me in reply that he could see the di-, vision into four pretty distinctly. I have since observed the same peculiarity in the spores of Tyndaridea insignis, Hass., and Staurocarpus gracilis, Hass., and, as Mr. Berkeley remarks to me, it may prove more general than has hitherto been supposed. The separation of the contents of the sporangium into four portions does not take place in our three species until the fruit is nearly mature, and this soon afterwards becomes too opake for the character to be seen, so that it can be observed only in a particular state of the plant. The sporangium in all the species I have mentioned is more or less compressed vertically. Mesocarpus scalaris may occasionally be observed with some of its cells considerably inflated ; and each of these enlarged cells is found to contain a globose echinulate body very much resembling the sporangium of some of the Desmidiece, and respecting the character of which it is difficult to determine : this body may first be seen as a very small spherical cell, apparently quite smooth, and containing an oily-looking fluid ; it subsequently grows much larger and becomes furnished with several long curved spines ; its texture seems to be corneous. It does not appear to be de-veloped at the expense of the endochrome of the cell which con-tains it, but in some instances I have thought the quantity of endochrome rather larger than usual in the inflated cells. Can this curious body be an abnormal growth of the nucleus, or is it an internal parasite ? Some of the cells of a Tyndaridea received from Mr. Ralfs, have within them a fusiform transversely ribbed body, which is probably of a similar character to the spherical ones found in the Mesocarpus. I am, Gentlemen, your very obedient servant, G. H. K. Thwaites. XXXVI.— -Bo ^«mca/ Notices from Spain. By MORITZ WiLLKOMM*. [Continued from p. 196.] No. XI. Granada, July 5, 1845. Before my departure from Malaga I visited, in the beginnino-of last month, the southern portion of the Sierra de Mijas, lying near the village of Chuniana. Along the bank of the Guadalhoree occurred Scolymus maculatus, L., Achillea Ageratum, L., and various Carices in flower, and on boulders and sand above Chuniana and on the slopes of the mountain -chain blossomed Ruta montana, L., a small form of * Translated from the Botanische Zeitung, Nov. 21, 1845.
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