207 



rise spirally from the base, intersecting each other, and forming 

 shallow, rhombic hollows. The lower angles of these are marked 

 by the white spatula-shaped scars left by the detached achenia. To 

 my surprise these indicated two distinct phyllotaxies, the is and 

 the -g^T. The achenia are more commonly sessile, or nearly so, 

 but are also sometimes raised, not on a stipe, but on a curious 

 rough pedestal — a shapeless hardened mass of tissue, apparently 

 deposited by sheer excess of vital force. Nuttall's account of the 

 achenia, or '' seeds " as he na'ively calls them, is sufficiently full 

 and accurate to be worthy of quotation : ** Brown, nearly as large 

 as horse-beans, naked, smooth, shining, about sixteen in each 

 utriculus, of a roundish oblong form, marked with a longitudinal 

 suture and a central hilum ; shell hard and cartilaginous, peri- 

 sperm none or a small central portion, gelatinizing when moist- 

 ened ; radicle descendant, cotyledones convolute, white and large, 

 of an oleaginous bitter taste.'* The color is that of freshly browned 

 coffee, and I have twice known the Calycanthus achenia to be 

 mistaken for coffee beans. The length varies from a half to a 

 third of an inch, and the diameter is about half as great. The 

 weight ranges from three to five grains. They are not strictly 

 naked, but have commonly a little spreading silvery pubescencCj 

 especially about the base. The number is greater than Nuttall 

 represents. In ten pods ^f the average full size I counted re- 

 spectively, i6, 17, 17, 18, 19. 20, 20, 26, Z^ and 31, in all 214, 

 or an average of over 21. The pod containing 31 had also five 

 or six abortive ovaries, indicating about 35, or at most 40, as the 

 maximum possible number. The minimum is one, several 

 minute pods being completely filled by a single fully developed 

 achenium. Both sutures are well defined, the ont next the wall 

 being marked by a single crest, and the one towards the axis of 

 the pod by two parallel crests with a slight furrow between. 

 These are slender, sharp and more or less corrugate-wavy. The 

 " hilum " (if the term maybe used with reference to an achenium), 

 IS not central as ii\ a bean, but is distinctly basal. In Gray's 

 Structural Botany, the embryo of Calycanthus is figured with 

 the radicle projecting considerably below the cotyledons. In the 

 numerous seeds I dissected it was always entirely enclosed within 

 their coiled bases. The cotyledons are so brittle, that even after 



