294 FLORA ANTAECTICA. [Fucgia, the 



all bear to Olacinea, as was also first indicated by Mr. Brown* and afterwards well illustrated by M. Decaisne, 

 after a comparison of the ovules of Ykcum album, f with those of Thedum. The ripe fruit of M. punctulatum forms 

 an achenium, which generally dehisces longitudinally and allows of the partial or complete exsertion of the 

 seed ; but I am not aware whether germination takes place by the embryo becoming thus excluded, or whether, 

 as in the following species, the radicle protrudes at the apex of the fruit, pushing the disc and style before it. 

 The feathery filaments (hereafter to be described) are not so long in this species as in the following, or probably 

 as in any of its congeners, except the M. imbricatum,X Pcepp., of South Chili ; they are plumose with long hairs, 

 which are capitate at the apex. The walls of the pericarp are more membranous here than in the other species, 

 and, when fully ripe, the ealycine portion looks like three plates, attached longitudinally by part of their surface 

 to the endocarp ; the filaments being lodged in the spaces formed by their contiguous non-adherent portion (Plate 

 CIV./. 16.). The stout central column of the ovarium is elongated in the fruit into a slender chord, pressed 

 between the seed and walls of the cavity of the fruit, and resembles a funiculus ; its edges are ragged from the 

 rapid elongation of its substance. The true funiculus is extremely short, and bears at its base the two very 

 minute unimpregnated ovules (Plate CIV./. 18 and 19). The seed is linear-oblong, narrow and obtuse at both 

 extremities. The albumen is copious, formed of utricles that at first are readily separable ; and though the 

 outer ones adhere closely, they do not seem covered with any distinct testa ; a cavity in the upper part contains 

 the greater portion of the embryo, which is of very highly organized tissue, and the radicle which is not immersed in 

 the albumen is covered with a membrane apparently continuous from the funiculus, which at an early period may be 

 traced downwards, lining the cavity of the albumen (Plate CIV. /. 19, where the membrane is represented 

 as too thick in texture). At no time can I detect the lower portion of this membrane (first observed by 

 Mr. Brown), except whilst the cells of the albumen are loosely held together and may be scraped by the knife 

 from its surface, and then it appears homogenous and of a different texture from what covers the radicle, 

 which is cellular (Plate CIV. / 20). The embryo is very small, the radicular extremity capitate, with a 

 depression at the top ; the cotyledonary terete, abrupt, slightly curved and fistulose at the apex : the cotyledons are 

 consolidated and present no trace of any line of union. The tissue of the radicle differs materially from that of 

 the cotyledons, which may be seen even before, but still more remarkably after, dissection (Plate CIV. / 20). The 

 upper portion of the capitulum, above the upper margin of the cavity of the albumen, is composed of delicate filiform 

 cells of considerable length, enclosed in a cellular cuticle of great tenuity. The lower half and terete cotyledonary 

 portion consists of closely-packed oblong cells, projecting in the form of a cone towards the radicular end. This 

 structure, somewhat modified, exists in M. bracJiystachi/um (Plate CV. /. 20 and 21), the tissue of the radicle 

 being much more lax than that of the cotyledons. The peculiar functions of the radicle doubtless demand this 

 highly organized structure, both for rapid elongation and for the sudden spread of the membrane by which the 

 following, and probably all the species, are first attached to the bark whereon they grow. In the present, the true 

 radicle which pierces the bark is probably the conical continuation of the cotyledonary portion. 



The plumose pappi of the achenium afford one of the great peculiarities of this genus ; of their function there 

 can be no doubt, though their origin and true nature are not quite so evident. De Candolle,§ from an examination 

 of very imperfect specimens, described them sufficiently accurately, as scales contained in the walls of the pericarp. 

 Guillemin || also considers them to be pappiform appendices, contained in fissures of the achenia. Neither of these 



* Brown, Prodromus Plor. Nov. Holl , p. 352. 



t Decaisne, Sur le pollen et l'ovule du Gui. Act. Acad. Koy. de Bruxelles, vol, xiii. 



\ This species I have never seen, nor are either the figures or descriptions satisfactory, vid. Pocppig et 

 Endlicher, Nov. Gen. et Sp. &c. vol. i. p. 2. t. 3. 



§ De Candolle, sur la Famille des Loranthacees, p. 12. 



|| Poeppig and Endlicher, Nov. Gen. et Sp. Plant. Per. et Chili, vol. i. p. 1. 



