50 DE. THOMSON ON THE STEITCTUEE 



germination, they will not, I think, necessarily become plumnlary, 

 some cotyledons during germination becoming decidedly leafy. 

 On the whole this peculiar embryo appears to me distinctly ana- 

 logous to that of Dracontiimy and in a less degree to that of 



Cryptocoryne P 



In the illustrations to the fourth volume of Griffith's ' NotulsD,' 

 t- 636. f. 1 represents a longitudinal section of a ripe seed of Bar- 

 ringtonia conoidea, Griff., and in the description of the plates he 

 refers to a central and peripherical system, at the plumular end of 

 the latter of which two small notches are seen. Fig. 2 of the same 

 plate shows a similar section of B. racemosa^ and shows at &, h the 

 primary or first-formed scales, and at c, c the secondary-formed 

 scales. 



In plate 634 A the four figures in the left upper comer repre- 

 sent longitudinal sections of the seed of Careya Tierbacea^ Koxb. 

 The references to the letters are found in the ^Notulse*.' In 

 the general description of the plant he gives it white fleshy al- 

 bumen and an imdivided central embryo united to the albumen. 

 In the references, however, he has evidently in view the above- 

 quoted general remarks on Barrvngtonia, calling the notches at 

 the plumidar end of the peripherical system cotyledons, and adding 

 above, " at first the long section shows only two notches, then it 

 shows four, the two last nearly enclosing the plumule f-" 



In 1855 MiquelJ, following Blume and Endlicher, gives to 

 both genera an exalbuminous embryo, in which cotyledons and 

 embryo are blended into a homogeneous mass. 



From the preceding details it wiU be seen that Gartner, Blume, 

 Hamilton, Roxburgh, Wight, and Grif&th are the original au- 



* iv. 661. 



t An earlier view taken by GWffith, in reference to the seed of Carey a^ is 

 given in the abstract of a paper by him, dated Jidy Ist, 1835, and published 

 in the * Proceedings of the Linnean Society,' vol. i. pp. 280-1. In this abstract, 

 after describing both the seed and its germination, it is said : — " The absolute 

 nature of the outer fleshy part, Mr. Griffith observes, can only bo determined 

 by pursuing the development of the ovule. The nature of the subulate body is 

 evident ; it is the root, the true plumula being the minute scaly body at its 

 distal end. The root points, as it should do, towards one side of the liilum, the 

 situation in fact of the foramen. At the collet it is continuous with the plu- 

 mula, and laterally with the outer fleshy mass, which ought therefore to be co- 

 tyledonary, and taking it to be so, might be explained by supposing tl 

 ledons to be affixed in a neltate manner, and united into a solid mass." 



There 



essential difierence 



adopted by DeCandolle and Endlicher, in regard to Barringtonia, — Seob. 



484 





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