50 MR. J. MIERS ON THE BARRINGTONIACE. 
Lindley, in 1845 !, described the fruit of the Barringtoniacee as fleshy, and containing 
many bony seeds lodged in pulp, with an embryo in the axis of copious fleshy albumen. 
Wight, іп 18502, expressed his opinion that in Careya the embryo of its seed is placed 
in the axis of а copious fleshy albumen; and he figured it accordingly. 
Blume, іп 18522, repeated his conviction that in Butonica the embryo is exalbuminous, 
with the cotyledons and radicle intimately combined into one homogeneous fieshy 
mass, ignoring, as he had done before, that it is composed of two distinct concentric 
bodies, a fact adverse to his conclusion. 
Griffith, іп 1854, described the embryo of Butonica as formed of two conferruminated 
portions. He imagined that “in its central part the upper end represents a radicle, its 
lower end а plumule; he also supposed allthe parts which he figured, between the 
lowest scales of the superficies and the radicle, to be an adherent cotyledon, or else an 
immense radicle, and two or several minute cotyledons represented by scales, and an 
inconspicuous plumula—a peculiar form of embryo analogous to that of Dracontium 
and, in a less degree, that of Cryptocoryne.” The presence of these scales, however, was 
observed only in two species; probably in all the others they were absent. Griffith says 
distinctly they are absent in his B. conoidea, He evidently did not think they formed an 
essential part of the structure; for in the species he describes he noticed much irregu- 
larity in the number and situation of the scales. 
Miquel, in 1855, merely repeated Blume's definition in his monograph of f the family. 
Dr. Thomson, in 1857^, gave an able review of the opinions of botanists on this sub- 
ject, when he came to the conclusion that this form of embryo is exalbuminous, and con- 
sists of 2 concentric layers, that the cotyledons are rudimentary, that in germination the 
central layer is continuous with the pith, and the outer layer continuous with the bark 
of the new plant, that the plumule (at least almost without scales) is developed into the 
new stem, while the opposite extremity is elongated into a root. Не adds, that in this 
development the only appearance of foliary growth is in the series of minute scales upon 
the ascending axis, as shown in Roxburgh’s figure; but these are only rudimentary, for 
the first true leaves are not developed until that axis is 1 or 2 inches long. He had 
observed numerous instances of this germination, and adds, somewhat ambiguously, that 
the new stem is a prolongation of a bud springing from the axil of one of the minute 
scales observed by Griffith, He shows also the close affinity between this form of 
embryo and that of the Guttifere, as Roxburgh had before pointed out. 
Here I аш able to offer some new evidence bearing upon this subject. Іп 1854’, in 
my paper “ Ор the Structure of the Seed and peculiar Form of the Embryo іп Clusiace@,” 
I showed that it consisted of 2 layers, one placed concentrically round the other; I gaye 
to the outer one the name of exorhiza, and to the inner one that of neorhiza, because, in 
germinating, the latter emitted at one extremity a growing stem, at the other a new 
rootlet; and in confirmation of this view I copied from Roxburgh’s drawing a figure of 
* Veg. King. p. 754. 2 Ilustr. p. 20, tab. 100. 3 In Van Houtte, Flor. Serr. iv. p. 72: | 
* Notule ad Plant. Asiat. iv. pp. 657, 658, pl. 636. * Flor. Ned. Ind. i. 484. 
* Proc. Linn. Soc. ii. 52, tab. 1. * Linn. Trans. xxi. 243, tab. 26. 
