626 ON THE EMBRYO OF TROPGOLUM MAJUS. 
reaching to a pore situated at the lowest point of attachment 
of the carpel to the receptacle. The part where the three - 
branches unite is swelled into a roundish knob, containing in 
its centre a mass of peculiarly formed tissue which at length 
becomes opaque. 
It is scarcely to be doubted that these two processes fulfil 
the office of rootlets in the first stage of germination, while 
the embryo is still enclosed within the carpellary integument ; 
and that if the latter were removed before the time of 
growth, the seed would fail, in consequence of the injury | 
which would almost inevitably be sustained by these root- 
lets. One of them would necessarily be broken off. It - 
-would be interesting to know whether, in germination, both — 
the processes pass out as rootlets from the pore. 
The following details, with figures taken from actual dis- 
sections, will supply what is wanting to complete my descrip- - 
tion. x 
Tas. XXII. 
Fic. 1.—Shews a longitudinal section of a young carpel, - 
from a newly expanded flower:—a, in this, and in all the 
other figures, indicates the micropyle of the ovule; b. the - 
primine or outer integument; c. the nucleus; d. cavity of 
the nucleus. 
Fie. 2. Another carpel rather more advanced; d, marks 
the place where the rudiment of the embryo first ap- 
pears. | 
i Fic. 3. The oblong body from which arises the embryo 
-from the last figure, (highly magnified). It is enclosed in the 
membrane (embryo-sac), which lines the cavity of the 
nucleus throughout its entire length. 
Fic. 4. The micropyle, from fig. 2, more highly magnified. 
It is formed of the thickened and indurated mouth of the 
secundine, and is of a yellowish colour; d, the apex of 
the embryo-sac, containing the. embryo in a rudimentary 
state. 
Fic. 5. The oblong body, now become evidently branched : 
