Page:Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, Volume 12.djvu/174

146 the withered remains of which were in most cases visible at the base of the ripe seed. The first error of Michaux naturally led to a series of mistakes; and the naked seed being considered by him as a drupa, the albumen, which is of a horny texture, is described as a "nux cornea crassissima," and the embryo itself as the seed.

But although this account of the fruit of Leontice thalictroides be in no respect similar to that given by Michaux, it may perhaps be considered by some as still differing sufficiently from Leontice to authorize the establishment of a distinct genus; and that, therefore, the name Caulophyllum may be retained, and its character derived from the remarkable circumstance described, namely, the early rupture of its pericarpium. I believe, however, it will be found more expedient to reduce it again to Leontice.

For, in the first place, its habit is entirely that of the original species of the genus. And secondly, though the pericarpium of Leontice Leontopetalum, which is the type of the genus, remains shut until the ripening of the seeds, and attains a size more than sufficient for the mere purpose of containing them; yet in Leontice altaica, a species in other respects more nearly approaching to L. Leontopetalum than to L. thalictroides, the pericarpium, though it enlarges considerably after impregnation, is ruptured by the seeds long before they have arrived at maturity.

The accompanying drawing, for which I am indebted to my friend Mr. Ferdinand Bauer, will materially assist in explaining the singular economy now described; and may also perhaps render more intelligible the account I proceed to give of the second instance in which I have observed an analogous structure, but to illustrate which I have at present no drawing prepared.

This