364 oiSiBf/iO ^^\ I Linnaan Societt/n^* ^>M «o eisiM .1 ,'iM 



having a coriaceous testa, a thin integnment, and a solid fleshy nucleus 

 exhibiting in its axis a different development of a terete form, the whole 

 constituting one compact inseparable mass : from these facts he con- 

 cluded, contrary to the opinion of Jussieu, that the great body of the 

 nucleus is a large albumen, and that the axile portion is a pseudo- 

 monocotyledonous embryo, all closely united together in one solid 

 body. Richard, in 1811, figured the analysis of the seed of Clusia 

 palmicida, and it is singular that although the structure of Pekea 

 (Caryocar) tuberculosa, described at the same time, has been copied 

 into every botanical work since published, the equally important 

 facts recorded of the seed of Clusia have entirely escaped the notice of 

 every succeeding botanist except Jussieu. Richard there correctly 

 describes the seed of Clusia as being enveloped in pulp, one extre- 

 mity of its brittle testa pierced with an aperture, beneath which the 

 nucleus exhibits a small protuberance cleft in two, which he states to 

 be two minute cotyledons, the principal mass of the embryo being 

 an enormous radicle : he points out the existence of an inner inte- 

 gument, one end of which is attached to the aperture in the extre- 

 mity of the testa, the whole forming, in his own peculiar technology, 

 " an epispermic antitropal embryo.'* Mr. Miers states there is one 

 essential error in this otherwise correct description ; that, like other 

 botanists, Richard has mistaken the base for the aj)ex of the seed. 

 Jussieu, commenting on these facts in 1813, infers that Clusia can- 

 not belong to Gvttifenp, but must constitute the type of a distinct 

 family near Marcgraaviacece. Choisy, in 1822, in a memoir on the 

 Chitttferie, ascribes in his ordinal character, features different from 

 those of Jussieu, and equally opposed to those of Gsertner. He 

 states that the seeds are without albumen, that the embryo is erect, 

 and that the cotyledons are large, fleshy, either separable, or com- 

 bined in one mass. In Garcinia, he says, the seeds are arillate, and 

 the cotyledons thick and conjoined ; but in Clusia, he concludes that 

 these presumed cotyledons are separable, a feature which no suc- 

 ceeding botanist has verified. He alludes in no way to the very dif- 

 ferent structure of the seed in Clusia,SLS recorded by Richard, although, 

 when stating the separability of the cotyledons in that genus, this 

 idea may probably have been derived from some indistinct recollection 

 of the analysis of that eminent carpologist. In the ' Prodromus* 

 of DeCandolle (1824), the characters given of the GuttifercB are only 

 a recapitulation of the facts stated by Choisy in the above-mentioned 

 memoir. Cambessedes, in a very able essay published in 1828, 

 aflfirms that in the Guttifcrcc the embryo is erect, the cotyledons 

 large, thick, very entire, and united into one mass ; the radicle is very 

 small, of a nipple-like form, while its direction in regard to the point 

 of attachment of the seed is deserving of attention, because this cha- 

 racter (generally of primary importance) is here variable. He then 

 states that in Clusia criuva the radicle is directed to tlie extremity 

 of the seed farthest removed from the point of its attachment ; he 

 describes the embryo of Clusia and Calophyllum as being erect and 

 inverted, the small mammaeform point, which he calls the radicle, 

 being at the apex, or opposite extremity to the basal point of attach- 



