110 



DR. A. GEAT ON MAGNOLIA. 



size represented in fig. 15. This is taken early in July, about 

 three weeks before the cones begin to assume a rosy hue, and while 

 the crustaceous coat of the seed, although well developed, is only of 

 a firm fleshy texture, or just commencing to harden at the chalaza. 

 The tissue of the fleshy coat is by this time well filled with scat- 

 tered oil-receptacles. The raphe, visible externally when the 

 seed is a little withered, when fresh is hardly more to be discerned 

 than in a Pwonia. Fig. 16 is an enlarged cross-section of fig. 15 ; 

 d, the cord of vessels of the raphe. Fig. 17, a longitudinal sec- 

 tion ; a, the fleshy outer coat ; a\ the forming bony coat ; J, the 

 delicate inner coat, answering to the secundine of the ovule ; c, the 

 nucleus; d, the cord of vessels of the raphe. Fig. 18 is a sec- 



d Fig. 18. 



tion of the tissue of fig. 17, and answering to fig. 14 ; the parts 

 correspondingly lettered. The only difference is that the about- 

 to-be bony portion of the testa is more definite and has much 

 increased in thickness. In ripening, this soon hardens, and at 

 length its outer fleshy part turns red. 



If these illustrations do not make the matter clear, the objector 

 has only to examine the young seeds and ovules of Magnolia for 

 himself. Although I do not perhaps completely understand how 

 Mr. Miers arrived at the conclusions which he still maintains, I 

 suspect it comes from his forming a wrong idea of the nature of 

 the raphe, and from mistaking for the raphe in Magnolia the 

 cord of vessels it contains. And I would ask him to make a com- 

 parative examination of the ovules and seeds of JBcdonia ; which, 

 like many other anatropous seeds, at or before maturity, show no 

 appearance of the raphe externally ; in which the cord of vessels 

 will be found more internal than in Magnolia^ and yet where the 

 fleshy surface of the seed will surely not be taken for an arillus, 

 while the homologue of the latter is plainly visible at the base of 

 the seed of most species. These seeds will also furnish convincing 

 evidence that two, or even three, strata of very different texture 

 may be developed from the primine or outer coat of the ovule. 



