298 Transactions of the Society. 



(plate IV. figs. 6a, 6b) are large and strongly netted, the meshes 

 beins: arranged in longitudinal lines. The base of the inner 

 face is angled, with a Hat crescent-shaped area on either side of 

 of the angle where they come in contact with one another. Those 

 of A. Chamcepitys (plate IV. figs. 7a, 7a) are more elongated, united 

 for more than half their length, and prominently netted with 

 strong, obtuse ridges, the meshes being arranged in longitudinal 

 lines. 



In Teucrium Botrys (plate IV. figs. 8a, 8b) the nutlets are 

 globular, relatively large, united over a considerable area at the 

 base, netted with broad ridges, and a deep pit in each mesh, 

 more or less covered with sessile mealy glands. 



Verbenace^e. — This family differs from the preceding princi- 

 pally in having the ovary entire. The fruit is four-celled, with one 

 seed in each cell, and at maturity separates into four nutlets, each 

 of which is oblong, truncate at the apex, four- to six-ribbed on the 

 dorsal aspect. The seed, which is entirely filled by the embryo, 

 closely conforms to the interior of the nutlet. 



That of V. teucroides (plate IV. fig. 9), a native of Brazil, has 

 a somewhat peculiar form. 



Plantagixe^e. — The fruit is a capsule, opening transversely, or 

 indehiscent. The seeds are sometimes few and comparatively 

 large, in other species more numerous and smaller. Wind is 

 probably the principal agent in distribution, but birds feed on 

 them, and no doubt sometimes drop them. In some species 

 they are mucilaginous. 



Chexopodiace^e. — The ovary is 1 -celled. The fruit a utricle, 

 that is to say the outer covering formed of the ovary, loosely 

 surrounds the single seed, or in some rare cases the fruit is a berry. 

 The flower is often persistent, and incloses the fruit. This pro- 

 bably facilitates dispersal by wind. 



The seeds may be either vertical or horizontal, both forms 

 occurring in the same genus, and even in the same species (Cheno- 

 podium Bonus- Hcnricus, C. ruhrum). In this family also we meet 

 cases where, as in Chenopodium fcetidum, the testa is mucilaginous. 



In Atriplcx hortensis there are two kinds of seeds. They differ 

 in size and colour. The larger seeds are the more numerous. 

 Larger seeds suborbicular, laterally compressed and concave on 

 the sides', entirely encircled by the embryo, which is annular and 

 peripheral, thickest round that edge containing the cotyledons of 

 the embryo. Testa pale yellowish-brown, or testaceous, thin but 

 tough, very shallowly rugulose on the surface. The concavities at 

 the sides are due to the shrinking of the central endosperm or to 

 the fact of there not being sufficient to fill the seed properly. 



The smaller seeds are reniform-orbicular or simply orbicular, 

 laterally compressed, but biconvex. Testa black, shining and show- 

 ing itself through the membranous utriculus, finely but distinctly 



