188 Mr. J. Miers on the Styracese, 



with it, and affixed against the inner surface of the main cavity, 

 like parietally suspended sacs, each containing one of its ovules 

 greatly increased in size, with the abortive ones unchanged, 

 while the fourth incomplete cell disappears entirely, so that the 

 ovary now seems completely unilocular from top to bottom, and 

 with one, two, or three ovuligerous open sacs parietally attached 

 to its inner wall. 



At the period of four months after the fall of the corolla, I 

 found the ovary increased to ten times its original size; the 

 ovules were in the same parietal position as last described, but 

 their sacs, formerly open, were now enclosed and covered over, 

 one with a bony coating, apparently an extension of the shell of 

 the pericarp, now hardened by osseous deposits ; the other cells 

 or sacs, not destined to perfect their ovules, were also entire and 

 enclosed, but the covering here was membranaceous and not 

 ossified. I observed that sometimes two, or all three, of the cells 

 became osseous, and produced perfect seeds. The entire cavity 

 of the main central space, at this period, was filled with a soft 

 white mass of light cellular tissue, which, after two or three days' 

 exposure to the air, when cut open, gradually dried and shrank 

 into a very thin membrane, lining the now hollow cavity of the half- 

 matured fruit. At that period, if only one cellule became osseous, 

 it contained an enlarged ovule, which, though not yet arrived at 

 maturity, clearly exhibited its two distinct integuments, as well 

 as its chalaza, raphe, and embryo ; the other two membranaceous 

 cellules contained each a considerably enlarged, though withered 

 ovule, seeming as if it had lost its vitality at some intervening 

 period. Upon the ventral side of these cellules as many distinct 

 longitudinal woody threads are observed, which are the fila nu- 

 tritoria of Mirbel and St. Hilaire, containing the nourishing 

 vessels that originally supplied the placenta, and these are now 

 traceable from the point of attachment of the ovules down to 

 the base of the central vacant space, and into the peduncle. 



I have examined the matured seed, in a fresh as well as dried 

 state, and find exactly the same development, only that all the 

 parts are now grown to double the last-mentioned proportions. 

 It commonly occurs here that two osseous cells become perfected, 

 and remain contiguous to one another upon one side of the bony 

 endocarp, each containing a ripe seed; the third cellule is usu- 

 ally obsolete and membranaceous, while, as in the former case, 

 all trace of the fourth cellule disappears : the nourishing threads 

 of the extended placenta are here distinguishable in the position 

 above described. The seeds, in the several instances examined, 

 were either suspended or erect in the respective cells, according 

 to the original position of the ovules from which they were per- 

 fected. In Styrax the testa is thick and osseous ; in Halesia it 



