586 NOTES FROM THE BOTANIC GARDENS, SYDNEY, XV. 



The fruit and floral organs of this species have never been 

 previously obtained, and a description of the mature fruit will be 

 therefore of interest. 



Fruit-carpel solitary, on a thick stalk nearly 20 ram. long^ 

 ovate-globular, compressed, about 17 mm. long and slightly, less 

 broad, crowned by the thick persistent base of the style, of soft 

 coriaceous texture and densely covered with short soft prickles 

 thickened at the base. At full maturity the carpel opens at the 

 top in more or less deep slits, forming irregular teeth or lobes ^ 

 from a few to 8 or 9 in number. Seeds 1 to 3 in the carpel, 

 attached laterally, roughly globular, but of irregular shape and 

 somevv^hat umbonate, about 10 mm. in diameter; testa thin; 

 embryo slightly curved. 



Ascherson and Grabner describe the fruits of Potamogetonacese 

 in "Das Pflanzenreich" (1907) in the following words: "Fructus 

 drupacei vel pericarpio membranaceo, maturi non dehiscentes, 

 monospermi." 



From the above description, and from our description and 

 figure of the fruits of Cymodocea ciliata, it will be seen that the 

 position of this species is abnormal, not only in the genus 

 Cymodocea^ but also in the Family Polamogetonacece; the plurality 

 of seeds being without precedent in the Family. We found three 

 seeds in one of the old open fruits, two seeds in another one, and 

 one seed in an unopened fruit which we figure in longitudinal 

 section(fig.G). The question now arises, should the species be 

 removed from the genus, in spite of the great similarity of the 

 vegetative organs to other species of Cymodocea whose floral 

 organs are known 1 We think it would be premature to propose 

 such a change in the present state of our knowledge of the plant; 

 for both male and female flowers are still unknown, and it would 

 be difficult to give its right position in the system without 

 knowledge of the flowers. 



There is a note on C. zosterifolia F.v.M., by the late Baron von 

 Mueller, in the Victorian Naturalist for February, 1893, but the 

 species to which we refer is not touched upon. 



