140 ANAGALLIS ARVENSIS. 



exquisite a regularity as the facets in the compound eyes of insects. 



The Pollen grains, as shown in Fig. 13, are drawn from a 

 dry mount by the neutral-tint reflector. They appear generally of 

 an elliptic shape with a dotted surface, and a fissure running down 

 the centre of each grain. But with careful focussing they are seen 

 to be formed on the plan of a triangle with curved sides, and there 

 are probably three sutures in the three angles. In some of the 

 grains the appearance is as if the triangular-shaped grains are 

 flattened at one of the extremities. 



The Style of the Pistil is rose-coloured in a fresh specimen, 

 and the stigma is enlarged into fleshy lobes well adapted for receiv- 

 ing the pollen. The style also is closely packed with spiral fibre. 

 The germen is globose, attached to the calyx, with a central 

 placenta surrounding the ovules, each of the latter lying in a 

 loculus or cavity of the placenta. The ovules vary in number ; I 

 have counted as many as twenty-four. They are composed of 

 irregular-shaped cells filled with granular matter. They are stalked, 

 and the funiculus or stalk which attaches the ovule to the placenta 

 is at the base of the ovule; the foramen is near the base also, and 

 through the latter the pollen tubes enter to discharge the fovilla of 

 the pollen to fertilise the ovule. The drawing, Fig. 14, is copied 

 from one of my slides j the staining of the ovule has clearly marked 

 the central portion with a deeper shade of colour. This dark por- 

 tion is the nucleus which will develope into the embryo of the 

 mature seed. 



The Seeds of Anagallis arvensis are enclosed in a globular 

 capsule as large as a small pea. The capsules are dehiscent, the 

 suture causing them when ripe to separate into two hemispheres, 

 the upper one falling off, the lower half remaining as a cup, and 

 exposing the dark brown seeds which are scattered around the 

 parent plant. The capsule is termed a Pyxidium, and the Henbane 

 is the only plant which has a capsule of similar character. The 

 cellular structure of the capsule lid is worthy of observation. It is 

 composed of large cells with richly-ornamented cell-walls prettily 

 curved ; the cells are distinguished by an interior deposit of a 

 sclerogenous character. The drawing (Fig. 15) of this cellular 

 formation was made under the neutral-tint reflector, and the slide 

 from which it was copied gives a beautiful effect under polarised 



