ON AN ANOMALOUS FORM OF THE PLUM. 95 



with each other, and finally converge towards the apex, where 

 probably they all contribute to form portions of the style and 

 stigma- 



The endocarp, about as large as a coffee-bean, was mem- 

 branous, and extremely vascular on its internal surface. In 

 general, it was attached by vascular fibres, derived solely from 

 the point of origin ; but sometimes there were adhesions be- 

 tween its sides, and the tissue o^ the mesocarp on which it lay ; 

 along one of its edges it was sometimes wholly or in part 

 open, and this opening corresponded with the suture or 

 groove on the outer covering : sometimes it was attached 

 near to where the style was fallen off; in other instances it 

 was attached midway between that point and the peduncle. 

 In some specimens it was empty and collapsed, while in others 

 the rudiments of one or two ovules might be seen. These 

 were not apparently connected with the endocarp; but only 

 with a bundle of vessels and a fine transparent membrane 

 proceeding from the inner surface of the suture, representing 

 the conjoined margins of the protophylliim. One of the two 

 ovules was generally smaller than the other; and though neither 

 of them were bigger than a pin's head, yet even thus early 

 was it signified that the nutrition of one of the tvi^'o ovules was 

 deficient. 



The structure of one of these two ovules was not unlike 

 that of a regidarly formed ovule, and the whole was analo- 

 gous to that of the fruit itself, considered without reference to 

 the ovule. For the whole was plainly seen to consist of a 

 series of sacs, contained (emhoites) one within the other, and 

 touching each other at the neck only. Each ovule was made 

 up of three transparent shut sacs; the innermost of which, 

 (representing perhaps the tercine of M. Mirbel,) contained 

 a transparent fluid and nothing more, so far as I could dis- 

 cover. The repetition of the same form of sac within sac, and 

 the connexion of the whole with the vessels running from the 

 peduncle to the stigma, and constituting a true placenta, is 

 extremely remarkable, and helps to throw some light on the 

 •structure of the fruit in general. As there was no provision 



