86 MR. MIERS ON THE OUTER FLESHY COVERING OF THE SEED 
the seed, its outer portion forming the pulpy, the inner the crustaceous seed-coat.” This 
ingenious reasoning cannot however be maintained in view of the real circumstances of 
the case, for it does not in any degree remove the insuperable obstacle which I have urged 
against his doctrine, in the position of the raphe with regard to the several coatings of the 
seed and to the true chalaza. But supposing, for argument’s sake, we waive that objection, 
the reasoning is not tenable upon other grounds, because if such were the origin of these 
two envelopes, there ought to exist an intimate union of the fleshy exterior with the bony 
nut, having its several osseous and fleshy deposits enclosed within the two original epi- 
dermal pellicles of the primine. We find, on the contrary, that the osseous substance of 
the nut is furnished internally with a smooth skin, and externally with a distinct hardened - 
epidermis, which in Talauma I found to be black and polished in the living state; the 
fleshy coating is also furnished on both surfaces with a distinct reticulated membrane, the 
inner pellicle being clearly seen with a lens. The arilliform coating, in every case exa- 
mined, I have found provided with a double (that is an endodermal as well as an epi- 
dermal) membrane, showing it to be a distinct formation from the testa. Although 
perfectly free from the latter in Passiflora, &e., it is generally more or less adherent to it, 
especially in those cases where the raphe is spread over its whole area in branching rami- 
fications: by its close adhesion to the testa, it then forms a compound tunic, and when 
the external coating is fleshy and the raphe is simple, as in Magnolia, &c., it can often be 
easily separated from it in an entire state: this is what Gærtner calls, a baccate or fleshy 
testa*. 
My view of the nature of this development is simply the following: that in the act 
of inversion of the ovule, the spiral vessels destined for its nourishment and always 
retaining their original attachment toit at the gangylode, are drawn out, together with 
an enveloping portion of the placenta, so that by means of these spiral vessels and this 
placentary sheath, the same communication between the placenta and the gangylode of 
the ovule is maintained that had existed prior to the act of its inversion. This placentary 
sheath with its enclosed spiral vessels, appears like à prominent broad external band, as 
shown and figured by Dr. Asa Gray, both in relief and in section, in his analysis of Mag- 
nolia, to which I have referred : up to this point we are both in accord. This band 
afterwards becomes expanded by almost imperceptible degrees over the primine, until it 
finally envelopes it in the manner I shall presently demonstrate: it then becomes thick- 
ened by internal deposits, and assumes the form of a distinct scarlet fleshy covering over 
the testa, being quite arilliform in its structure and appearance. The testa is a distinct 
development, formed by the secretion of transverse crystalline cells, closely compacted 
within the substance of the primine, the deposition of which cells has been noticed and 
lyden Grayt. The only circumstance that bears any weight in the opposite 
* « å * " 
ùn WAR el ici aie seminibus baceatis, et respectu situs sui nonnunquam exceptionem a regulå facit, 
habet affinitatem, atque a een teneat locum; ut in Bizd atque Magnolid. Hinc proximam cum wilt 
sui superficie Es : ut in nt Å OE mie quod carnosa testa semper arctissimo nexu cum totå seminis 
: ctis, nec non in Gloriosd, &c., in quibus nullum inter carnem atque semen ipsum 
intercedit spatium liberum, sicut in seminibus arillati 1 i 
T Hooker's Kew Journ. Bot. vol, viii. ote viae Seytaliæ (Nephelii) et aliarum.”—Gærtn. Introd. p. 133. 
