N. E. BROWN, SOME NOTES ON SEEDS AS MICROSCOPIC OBJECTS. 311 



of the seed is shallowly honeycombed and minutely tuberculate 

 all over and surrounded by a broad semi-transparent reticulated 

 pale-brown wing, which is divided into three lobes by a notch on 

 each side and another at one end ; at the sides the lobes overlap^ 

 but at the end they only meet ; half the breadth or less of the 

 wing is minutely tuberculated. If coloured films of gelatine are 

 interposed, as previously directed, this seed forms a very pretty 

 object. A native of South Africa ; not in cultivation, unless^ 

 perhaps under a wrong name. 



Aeschynanthus grandiflorus, Ae. Lobbii, and other spp. 

 (Gesneraceae). Although not beautiful, the minute seeds of 

 various species of this genus are remarkable for having a long 

 hair-like tail at each end, and the body of the seed is sometimes 

 peculiarly tuberculate. All are natives of Tropical Asia and the 

 Malay Archipelago; the above named and some others are in 

 cultivation. 



Philydrum lanuginosum (Philydraceae). In this plant the 

 seeds resemble small vases of deep garnet-coloured or some- 

 times brown glass, with numerous ribs spirally twisted around 

 them and covered with small knobs. A native of China, 

 Malaya, and North Australia; cultivated in some gardens. 



Lopholepis ornithocephala (Gramineae). Here again it is 

 not the seed itself, but the glumes in which it is enclosed that 

 are remarkable. For, as in many grasses, the seed does not 

 become free and fall out, but remains enclosed in the glumes of 

 the flower, which in this plant resemble a bird's head, having 

 a toothed crest on the top of the head and along the upper and 

 lower edges of the beak, with the sides of the head and the 

 laterally compressed beak covered with small tubercles. This 

 makes a very remarkable and interesting object, but is very 

 difficult to obtain. It is a native of the Deccan Peninsula, 

 where it is common, but is not in cultivation. 



Elionurus elegans (Gramineae). Another grass, of which 

 the glumes make very elegant low-power objects. The outer 

 glume is ovate, acute, and ends in two bristles ; whilst the margin 

 on each side has a series of stout tubercles projecting from it, 

 each tubercle bearing a tuft of long pure white hairs, forming 

 a beautiful marginal fringe ; there is also a tuft of similar hairs 

 on the back of the pale-brown glume at its base. A native of 

 west Tropical Africa, not in cultivation. Some other species, also 

 natives of Tropical and South Africa, have glumes resembling 

 the above. 



