36 



which enter the cavity of the carpel through the abovemen- 

 tioncd aperture (Spermopyle mihi), and hang freely in them 

 without ever adhering to the parietes of the cell at any period 

 of their growth. It is probable that Don (Prod. Fl. Nep. 

 p. 186) took the carpels for the outer envelop of the seed 

 when he asserts, as quoted by DeCandolle, in his Prodro- 

 mus, that the seeds are erect. But in the genera Hedera 

 and Adoxa it is evident that the seeds are attached to the 

 axis withoutside the corneo-membranous carpels. So in 

 Panax in the words of DeCandolle, " Fructus carnosus, 

 compressus, orbicularis aut didymus, bilocularis, loculis co- 

 riaceo-chartaceis monoipermis" and in Aralia itself he de- 

 scribes the fruit " Bacca 5-locularis ssepe torosa ; Pyrence 

 chartacece" Hence I maintain that my conclusions are not er- 

 roneous, and that consequently the extracarpellary attachment 

 of the seeds in these cases is proved. 



Lastly, in the family of the Viburneee Bartl. or Sambu- 

 cese Kunth, which by the structure of the fruit as well as by 

 the habitus is so different, as remarked by Bartling, from the 

 Caprifoliaceas, with which it has hitherto been united even by 

 DeCandolle, — in the young ovary three cells may be plainly 

 observed, and outside of them a continuation of the axis or 

 floral peduncle, emitting into the cavity of each cell a sus- 

 pended ovule. In the first stage of the growth of the seed it 

 is easy to perceive that that hard shell which has been erro- 

 neously taken for the outer integument of the seed is the 

 carpel, for its cavity is then very considerable, and the 

 ovule scarcely occupies a tenth part of it. So I have found 

 it in the Sambucus racemosus ; and the close analogy be- 

 tween the carpels of the genus Viburnum with the mo- 

 nospermous cells of the Hamamelidese, Br. and Cornese 

 DC. (in which no one has taken the stony carpels for the 

 testa of the seed) proves that it is by abortion that here the 

 external symmetry is destroyed of three carpels, to which 

 correspond the three styles in the flower, placed by Linnaeus 

 in the order trigynia of his fifth class. 



The object of my present observations does not extend to 

 the critical examination of the structure of the fruit in all the 

 genera belonging to the natural families I have quoted, but I 

 venture to assert, that the greater the number of observations 

 the more they tend to confirm the truth of Agardh's rule, that 

 the seeds are attached not to the margin of the leaf, but to a 

 special supporting organ. 



