174 



THE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



surface is smooth, very slightly glaucous 

 and of a black color with a brownish 

 shade. 



Structurally the fruit is one-seeded 

 drupe. The pericarp possesses a well 

 distinguished epicarp, sarcocarp and puta- 

 men. The epicarp is rather thick and 

 tough, a little more so than that of the 

 date, and is strongly cutinized. The 

 sarcocarp is slightly fibrous or stringy. On 

 being stripped off, a thin sub-layer of it 

 is left clinging to the putamen. The puta- 

 men is crustaceous, thin, smooth and 

 free from the contained seed. The latter 

 is somewhat smaller as compared with the 

 fruit than is the case with the olive, for 

 example, and is oblong- elliptical in longi- 

 tudinal section, nearly circular in trans- 

 verse as to general outline, the ventral 

 surface a little flattened and bearing a 

 distinct raphe running the entire length. 

 The hilum is small, sub circular and 

 basal. The embryo is very small and 

 upon the dorsum near its base, in which 

 particular it differs from the date seed, 

 which bears the embryo near the center 

 of the dorsum. In consistence it is sub- 

 osseous and it is solid. 



The histology of the fruit has been 

 worked out by Mr. W. A. Bastedo, a 

 graduate of the class of '94, of the New 

 York College of Pharmacy. 



HISTOLOGY. 



A traverse section or the fruit presents 

 the following from the periphery inwards: 



Epicarp — Uniformly about .625 mm. 

 deep; obviously distinct from the meso- 

 carp. 



Mesocarp — Composed of two layers: 



(1) An outer light yellow pulpy layer, 

 its thicknesses depending on the wrink- 

 ling of the epicarp in drying; average 

 thickness is 1.2 mm. (2) An inner dark 

 brown layer, uniformly about .5 mm. 

 thick. Numerous fibro-vascular bundles 

 are scattered about. 



Endoea?p-K single uniform stony layer, 

 about one-half the thickness of the epicarp. 

 The seed does not quite fill the cavity, 

 the intervening space being filled with a 

 sticky, viscous liquid. 



The Seed — Presents a testa .125 mm. 

 thick, a tegmen .01 mm. thick, and the 

 albumen, which measures laterally 8 

 mm. and dorso ventrally 6 5 mm. 



The Embtyo — Is close to the tegmen 

 extending towards the centre of the seed, 

 in shape cjlindrical, flattened at inner 

 end, about 2.5 mm. long, 1 mm. in 

 diameter. On the side opposite the 

 embryo is the raphe, which, with the 

 testa and tegmen is .5 mm. thick. 



The Epicarp — The external cuticular 

 sheath is uniform .0075 mm. thick, com- 

 pletely cutinized so that its cells are not 

 distinguishable. Beneath this is a layer 

 of about three or four cells thick, com- 

 posed of thick-walled, narrow cells, 

 elongated tangentially about .045 mm. 

 long, and one-third as broad, completely 

 filled with dark-brown resinous matter. 

 On tangential section these cells are tri- 

 angular or quadrilateral, .0375 mm. in 

 diameter, and exhibit a mucilaginous 

 thickening of the wall. In this layer is 

 occasionally found a group of non-pitted 

 sclerotic cells. 



The next layer has a depth of three or 

 four cells with less thickened walls, which 

 are lignified, scarcely pitted, and have a 

 middle lamella readily discernible. The 

 cavity is a little more than half the diam- 

 eter, and is filled with a reddish-brown 

 resin. Of these cells those most external 

 have the thickest walls, and becoming 

 thinner towards the centre, they grade 

 into the next layer which is composed of 

 thin- walled oval or oblong parenchymatic 

 cells about .15 mm. long, and .08 mm. 

 broad. These latter cells contain reddish 

 resin, and have small vacuoles close to 

 the cell-wall. There occur in this layer 

 a few solitary tittle-pitted stone-cells 



