Mr. J. Miers on the Winteracea?. 113 



thicker than the former, and has very minute hexagonal reticu- 

 lations, the areoles of which are smaller than the cells of the 

 albumen : these two membranes are homogeneous throughout, 

 and are easily separable from one another at all points, except 

 at the chalaza, where, together with the second fleshy tunic, all 

 three are intimately confluent. The albumen is fleshy ; and im- 

 bedded in its substance, close to the rostrated point before men- 

 tioned, we find the embryo, which is extremely small and shortly 

 cylindrical, the radicular end pointing to the hilum, the opposite 

 extremity being cleft into two very minute gaping cotyledons. 

 From these facts I infer that the outer testaceous shell is an 

 arillus, developed probably from the placenta, and that the 

 whole of the fleshy spongy coating (together with its included 

 raphe and its fungous hilum) is a growth or expansion of the 

 placentary sheath of the ovule, thus forming an investing entire 

 sac, and assuming the peculiar condition which I have called an 

 arilline* or fleshy development of the primine of the ovule. 



The generic character, from my observations, may be thus 

 defined. 



Illicium, Linn. — Flores hermaphroditi. Sepala 3 vel 6 peta- 

 loidea, membranacea, sestivatione imbricata, caduca. Petala 

 9 ad 30, patentia, 3-pluri-serialia, interiora angustiora et 

 minora, sestivatione imbricata, decidua. Stamina indefinita 

 (12 ad 40), pluriserialia, hypogyna, patentia; filamenta brevia, 

 carnosula; anther a adnatse, loculis segregatis margine fila- 

 menti semi-immersis, sublateraliter dehiscentibus. Ovaria 

 5-15, compressa, sessilia, libera, suberecta, serie unica gyno- 

 phoro brevi insidentia, 1-locularia; ovula solitaria, ex angulo 

 basali adscendentia, anatropa. Stylus subulatus, recurvus, 

 latere ventrali stigmatosus. Folliculi plurimi (5-15), coriaceo- 

 lignosi, compressi, rostrati, liberi, circa gynophorum centralem 

 stellatim adnati et horizontaliter radiantes, sub-2-valves, rima 

 superiore hiantes, 1-loculares, monospermi. Semen oblon- 

 gum, compressum, hilo majusculo excavatum et hinc ad axin 

 centralem horizontaliter affixum; tunica externa Crustacea, 

 dura, ore calloso incrassata, extus vitrea et nitidissima, intus 

 structura hexagonoidea reticulata, et crystalloidea; tunica se- 

 cunda crassiuscula, superficie bullata, extremitate hilari crassa, 

 raphigera, raphide simplici hilo orta per marginem superiorem 

 protensa et chalazam attingente percursa ; tunica tertia hya- 

 lina, tenuiter membranacea, areolis elongatis reticulata, versus 

 angulum superiorem chalaza majuscula incrassata; tunica 

 quarta pellucida, paullo crassior, areolis minutissimis hexa- 

 gonis reticulata, ad albumen arete adherens. Albumen co- 



* Linn. Trans, xxii. 89. 



