50 DE. THOMSON ON THE STRUCTURE 



germination, they will not, I think, necessarily become plumulary, 

 some cotyledons during germination becoming decidedly leafy. 

 On the whole this peculiar embryo appears to me distinctly ana- 

 logous to that of Dracontiumj and in a less degree to that of 

 Gryptocoryney 



In the illustrations to the fourth volume of Griffith's ' Notulae,' 

 t. 636. f. 1 represents a longitudinal section of a ripe seed of Bar- 

 ringtonia eonoidea, Griff., and in the description of the plates he 

 refers to a central and peripherical system, at the plumular end of 

 the latter of which two small notches are seen. Pig. 2 of the same 

 plate shows a similar section of B. racemosa, and shows at &, h the 

 primary or first-formed scales, and at c, c the secondary-formed 



In plate 634 A the four figures in the left upper comer repre- 

 sent longitudinal sections of the seed of Carey a herbacea, Boxb. 

 The references to the letters are found in the 'Notulse*.' In 

 the general description of the plant he gives it white fieshy al- 

 bumen and an undivided central embryo united to the albumen. 

 In the references, however, he has evidently in view the above- 

 quoted general remarks on Barringtonia, calling the notches at 

 the plumular end of the peripherical system cotyledons, and adding 

 above, " at first the long section shows only two notches, then it 

 shows four, the two last nearly enclosing the plumule f." 



In 1855 MiquelJ, following Blume and Endlicher, gives to 

 both genera an exalbuminous embryo, in which cotyledons and 

 embryo are blended into a homogeneous mass. 



From the preceding details it will be seen that Gsertner, Blume, 

 Hamilton, Boxburgh, Wight, and Griffith are the original au- 



* iy. 661. 



t An earlier view taken by GTriffith, in reference to the seed of Carey a^ is 

 given in the abstract of a paper by him, dated July 1st, 1835, and published 

 in the * Proceedings of the Linnean Society,' vol. i. pp. 280-1. In this abstract, 

 after describing both the seed and its germination, it is said : — " The absolute 

 nature of the outer fleshy part, Mr. Griffith observes, can only be determined 

 by pursuing the development of the ovule. The nature of the subulate body is 

 evident : it is the root, the true plumula being the minute scaly body at its 

 distal end. The root points, as it should do, towards one side of the hilimi, the 

 situation in fact of the foramen. At the collet it is continuous with the plu- 

 mula, and laterally with the outer fleshy mass, which ought therefore to be co- 

 tyledonary, and taking it to be so, might be explained by supposing the coty- 

 ledons to be affixed in a peltate manner, and united into a soHd mass." There 

 is httle essential difierence between this view and that proposed by Blume and 

 adopted by DeCandoUe and Endlicher, in regard to Barringtonia. — Sece. 



X Fl. Ned. Ind. i. 484. 



