BKNTHAM ON PAPILIONACE^ AND C^ESALPJ N IIVE. 129 



is a slight curve. Of another species Vogel observes, " video 

 . .. . embryoneni semper rectum ....in Boivdichia (saltern 

 majore), sed fortasse in hoc genere quod in affini Leptolohio 

 accidit, formam embryonis incertam esse." 



4. Cercis siliquastrum, considered by all as a true Caesalpi- 

 nieous plant. I had indeed as above mentioned once included 

 It among Sophorece, but that was from a mistaken notion of 

 what constitutes a papilionaceous corolla. The aestivation of 

 Cercis is essentially carinal. The ovule is about the shape 

 of that of Calpurnia sylvatica, but the nucleus is most re- 

 markably curved, the extremity next the foramen being 

 hooked as in the common Papilionacece^ and much more so 

 than in Sophora tomentosa. Indeed the ovule of Cercis was 

 the first instance given by Mirbel of what he called amphi- 

 tropous ovules, from their being curved as in campylotropous 

 ones, but with a raphe as in anati'opous ones. The ripe em- 

 bryo is however as straight as in any leguminous seed I 

 have seen, and Vogel also considers it as an orthoblast, 

 *' video in Cercide embryonem semper rectum," an instance 

 in direct contradiction to what is asserted in the preceding 

 page : " Hoc ovuli curvamen, in nostra quidem familia, 

 etiam embryonem curvatum efficit, et hie plerumque etiam 

 radiculam curvatam." 



5. C(Bsalpinia pulcherrima, or Poinciana pulcherrima of 

 most authors, which may be considered as one of the types of 

 CcEsalpiniecs, of which it has all the requisites. The ovule is 

 ^■ery broad, the raphe exceedingly thick, the nucleus straight 

 to near the end next the foramen, where it is shortly but 

 Very evidently curved.* In the ripe seed the cotyledons are 

 broad, straight, and deeply, but equally, heart-shaped at the 

 base; the radicle is rather long, and in a line with the centre 

 of the cotyledon, although even here a very close examina- 

 tion will show a sli'dit degree of curvature towards the hilum. 



Amongst several other species of my Sophore^s with straight 

 enibryos, of which I have examined the ovules, I find a con- 



* I find the same kind of ovule in some other species of the genus. 

 Vol. III.~No. 19. s 



