74 PROFESSOR HENFREY ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE OVULE 
cular line is seen leading from the apex of the placenta to the point corresponding to the 
base of the style; the cells of the endocarp exhibit a radiating linear arrangement on the 
upper half, the lines running upwards and outwards from the placenta (fig. 27). 
Å remarkable phænomenon occurs meanwhile in the interior of the placenta. It has 
been stated that there is never any appearance of development of cells in that part of the 
embryo-sac, behind (or below) the septum formed a little way outside the nucleus 
Tab. XVII. figs. 7-12). The inner bulbous expansion, formed by the septum itself, which 
becomes convex, and protruded upwards into the centre of the larger bulb, is found in the 
same condition, as long as the structures are traceable, and it finally forms a kind of stalk 
or “funiculus” to the seed, inserted into the substance of the albumen (Tab. XVII. 
figs. 12, 17, and Tab. X VIII. fig. 26), and connecting this with the remains of the placental 
structure. I have already mentioned, that while the tubular prolongation of the embryo- 
sac, outside the nucleus, is growing up over the placenta, the posterior end, inside the 
nucleus, also grows up, breaking down the tissue before it, into the substance of the placenta 
(Tab. XVII. fig. 4. Within this organ it proceeds nearly to the summit, and then turns 
round somewhat suddenly, and grows down again, with various ramifications, in the 
centre of the placenta, and even into the receptacle below where these arise (Tab. XVIII. 
figs. 20, 21): I have never seen anything like cell-formation, or even production of septa 
in these posterior branches of the embryo-sac; they contain a granular protoplasmic 
substance, which, in my preserved specimens, is of a red colour. The ends of the barren 
embryo-sacs undergo the same kind of development within the placenta, although the 
changes in the external portion cease at the period of the formation of the germinal 
yesicle. The ramifications of the three distinct embryo-sacs become somewhat inter- 
laced, but I have never certainly detected any conjunction or adhesion of them, as 
suspected by Griffith. 
It remains only to notice the further changes exhibited by the ovule. The endosperm 
or albumen of the embryo-sac increases enormously in quantity, so as to expand the sac 
in all directions (Tab. XVIII. figs. 16, 20, 26); the placenta is broken off just below the 
point of origin of the ovules (fig. 26), and pushed outwards and upwards by the enlarge- 
ment of the albumen (Tab. XVIII. figs. 27, 28 p); in the ripe fruit it is found lying upon 
the surface of the latter (Tab. XVIII. figs. 30 & 82 p), which, through the displacement 
and destruction of the endocarp, is finally in immediate contact with the woody mesocarp. - 
On examining the remnant of the placenta, even in the ripe fruit, it is found to be connected — 
with the endosperm by the bulb. When the placenta is then broken away from the 
receptacle, and pushed up, the receptacle upon which it was seated is also carried away 
towards the same side of the albumen, on the outside of which, near the base, it is 
ultimately found (Tab. XVIII. figs. 28, 30, 32 v) as a little mass of sphacelated tissue 
overlying a pit or foramen, which leads to an internal dark line, running through the — 
endosperm to the cotyledonary extremity of the embryo (Tab. XVIII. fig. 300). In he 
line, and in the sphacelated mass, are found remains of the posterior ramified processes 0" — 
the embryo-sac, some of which are also found attached to the upper fragment or placenta. — 
In the ripe seed, the embryo is found lying a little out of the axis of the albumen, na — 
i * This seems to resemble what Mr. Bentham describes in Olacaceæ, Linn. Trans. xviii, p- 675- 
