Pammel — Anatomical Characters of Seeds of Leguminosae. 191 



MUCUNA PRURIENS, DC. 



PI. XXIII. f. 4. PI. xxrii. f. 1-1 d. 



Malpighian. In the region of the hilum there is a double 

 row of cells; the light line occurs under the cuticle, and a 

 second indistinct line near the base of the cell. 



Osteosclerid. In the hilar region the I-shaped cells are 

 much like the spongy parenchyma of the nutrient layer, else- 

 where greatly elongated, with large intercellular spaces. 



Nutrient. Layer divided into two parts ; the cells of the 

 upper part with thicker walls, and larger than those of the 

 lower. 



Endosperm. Sparingly developed. 



Embryo. The epidermal cells have thick exterior walls, 

 and are much smaller than the underlying cells; palisade 

 cells wanting. The cells contain large starch grains as well 

 as aleurone grains. 



Phaseolus, Tourn. 



Many of the cultivated species have been studied because 

 of their economic importance. Schleiden and Vogel, Chalon, 

 Harz, Nadelmann, Tschirch and Oesterle, Tschirch, Nobbe, 

 Tautphoes, Le Monnier, Hartig, Pringsheim, Sachs, Likiernik, 

 Brongniart, Mattirolo and Buscalioni, Haberlandt, Lohr, 

 Strasburger, Huss, Schroder, Mirbel, Strandmark, Hanausek, 

 and the writer, as well as numerous others, have given 

 accounts of the seed or parts of it in this genus. 



Testa variously colored, brown, purple, red, and whitish, 

 usually well-developed. The osteosclerids are usually I- 

 shaped, with large intercellular spaces, although in P. vul 

 garis the cells are uniformly prismatic, thinner- walled, and con- 

 tain a single one or a pair of large calcic oxalate crystals ; these 

 sometimes also occur in P. midtijiorus but in this species the 

 layer has intercellular spaces. These crystals do not occur 

 in P. lunatus or P. perennis nor were they found by Haber- 

 landt or Harz in P. inamoenus and P. Mungo. Nor does 

 Harz record crystals in P. acutifoUus, nor Strandmark in P. 

 ornithopus. The nutrient layer is much compressed, and in 

 the colored species and varieties it is abundantly pigmented. 

 The mycotic cells occur in P. midiijlorus, P. vulgaris^ and 



