178 Mr. J. Miers on the Calyceracese. 



into a " tubillus," or monadelphous ring, while all the portions 

 of the same filaments beyond the limit of the disk remain free. 

 In Acicarpha, where the disk appears to be carried up to the ex- 

 tremity of the filaments, so that they are entirely monadelphous, 

 there is seen a thickening, called by Richard an " epinema" 

 which may be conceived to be the margin of the disk, and which 

 gives the anthers the appearance of being articulated upon 

 the filaments ; but this does not occur in the other genera of 

 the family, where the filaments are free at their apex. 



Although in Calyceracea the corolla at length falls off from 

 the summit of the apical tubercle of the seed, the fact cannot 

 be denied (as was demonstrated by Richard and confirmed by 

 Brown), that the tube of the corolla, in all stages, is continued 

 downwards over the entire surface of that tubercle. If we cut 

 through any Calyceraceous achsenium before the fall of the 

 corolla, by a longitudinal section, we find that this tubercle 

 consists externally of such a continuation of the corolla, lined 

 with an intermediate fibrous stratum, having in the centre a 

 thickish white cylindrical cord, continuous with the style, and 

 all three are agglutinated into one body. It is from the bottom 

 of this cord that the seed is suspended, by a short funicle, in the 

 summit of the cell. This cord can neither be considered as a 

 portion of the funicle, which is continuous with it, nor as a part 

 of the style, although it is articulated with the latter and also 

 continuous with it; it is, in truth, the placentary development 

 destined to give origin to the suspended ovule. 



The seed in Nastanthus is deeply 5 -grooved, its salient lobes 

 corresponding to and continuous with the round and concave 

 teeth of the calyx. If we make a transverse section across 

 the achseniuin, we find in the bottom of these grooves no meso- 

 carpic space between the thin endocarp and epicarp; so that 

 the external diameter of the seed in that part little exceeds that 

 of the apical tubercle; but the salient lobes or wings, which 

 extend from the calycine teeth to the base, are often more than 

 thrice that diameter; and the space between the epicarp and 

 endocarp in these wings is filled with a pithy medulla, no trace 

 of which exists in the intervals of the grooves. There are seen 

 in this section ten very distinct longitudinal nerves upon the 

 endocarp, five of which are opposite the grooves, the other five 

 being alternately placed opposite the wings, all of them at equal 

 distances : in the longitudinal section these ten nerves are seen 

 to run parallel to one another from the base to the apex, and to 

 pass through the apical tubercle, forming the intermediate fibrous 

 stratum above mentioned. At the summit they all seem com- 

 bined in a plexus, whence are thrown out the nourishing threads 

 to the placental cord for the support of the ovule and for the 



