ME. C. WjaOHT ON JUSSI^A. 477 



It would seem that I have not met good fruit of J. repens^ or 

 have neglected to collect it. I suj^pose my flowering specimens 

 from Cuba are correctly referred to it. 



J. peduncidaris^ Wr. This is a very peculiar plant in more 

 than one respect. It grows principally on what are called in 

 Cuba " te^nlladeras^^ — accumulated masses of decaying vegetable 

 matter, buoyed up by the spongy roots of the plants growing on 

 them, and floating from side to side of the pond, or often sta- 

 tionary, being more or less attached to the bottom of it. It 

 grows to the height of several feet, and becomes somewhat woody 

 at base. 



But the seeds are what I particvdarly aim to describe. The 

 ovules are suspended in a single series in the ovary-cells. In 

 their process to maturity, each one is enveloped in a portion of 

 the endocarp, of definite size and shape, which quite encloses 

 the seed and becomes woody. These seeds, as they would at 

 first sight be called, are trigonal, or the exterior portion rounded, 

 truncate at the ends, and fitting to one another as if they had 

 thus been divided with a knife. The seed is found within, en- 

 closed within its proper testa. Embryo clavate, cotyledons twice 

 as long as the radicle. Sometimes one of these portions is found 

 longer than the rest, as if it might contain two seeds. In this 

 case 1 observe that the seed is at one end ; and probably the 

 other ovule becoming abortive, this portion adheres to the one 

 in which the seed was perfected. The raphe of the seed is to- 

 wards the capsule-valve. 



J, oocarpa is so much like the former, that it can be described 

 in fewer words. This is found only on the teyiihladeras. The 

 fruit ia short, often so much so as to resemble the eggs of some 

 tortoises. The general arrangement of the seed is as in the 

 preceding. Their woody envelope is not so firm, and is itself 

 enclosed in a soft stratum of the endocarp. The external angles 



r 



are more rounded, and the cotyledonar end is quite closed, while 

 the opposite one is open and bevelled oft' on the outer side. AVithin 

 this lies the seed, enclosed in its membranaceous testa, with short 

 clavate semiterete cotyledons three times the length of the radicle 

 and of greater diameter. 



J. pilosa^ Kth. According to Mr. Grisebach this is J. varia- 

 bilis, Meyer (2565, Wr.). It may be so. It is certainly J. 

 foliosa, Wr., and J, leptocarpa, Nutt. The seeds are uniserial 

 in the ovary-cells, neither ascending nor suspended. The ovules 

 are at first, apparently, quite free and contiguous ; but shortly 



