102 MR. MIERS ON SEVERAL INSTANCES OF ANOMALOUS DEVELOPMENT 
pleting its circuit penetrates the testa through the diapyle, at a point where the two 
extremities of the recurved embryo are brought into close contiguity, although separated 
by a peculiar inflexion of the inner integument, close to the chalaza, so that this integu- 
ment is here bisaccate, one recess receiving the end of the radicle, the other the extre- 
mities of the cotyledons. In this case there appears no vestige of any embryo-sac, and 
although the raphe is completely cyclotropal*, only the cotyledonary or chalazal extremity 
of the embryo has accompanied it in effecting an entire revolution, while its radicular end 
has remained anatropal, having experienced only a half-gyration. This example therefore, 
although analogous in some respects, affords no assistance towards an explanation of the 
phænomena of Stemonurus. : 
In the Plumbaginacee, we have a remarkable instance of the complete gyration of the 
ovule under very different circumstances : in an early stage it is simply inverted according 
to the ordinary course of anatropal development, that is to say, a semi-gyration of the 
entire ovule on its centre, accompanied by the usual extension and adhesion of the placen- 
tary sheath or future raphe on the ventral side of the primine: subsequently a farther 
growth of the placentary sheath, or rather of the funicular attachment of the ovule, takes 
place, which becomes prolonged into a free cord, which, by its growth, again pushes the 
ovule onward, so as to turn it farther round on its centre, another half-revolution: the 
result is, that the funicular cord, arising in a free state from the base of the ovary, attains 
the summit of its cell, and from it the anatropal ovule is suspended; its cotyledonary 
or chalazal extremity thus returns to its normal position in regard to the carpel, after 
having performed a complete revolution on its centre, at the same time that it has only 
effected a half-revolution in respect to the point by which it was originally attached to 
the placenta. The embryo during all these changes continues perfectly straight; the 
placentary sheath or first expansion of the funicular cord remains adherent to the primine 
in the usual manner, while its subsequent extension is permanent as a free cord, so that 
the ovule, though strictly and simply anatropal in respect to the raphe, is in fact 
cyclotropal in.regard to the carpel. This development is again different to that 
observed in Stemonurus, inasmuch as the embryo has remained stationary, or what is 
almost tantamount, has made a complete gyration on its centre. One parallel circum- 
stance however exists in the form of the albumen, which, as in that genus, consists of two 
pun el plates united on their periphery by a thin annular zone corresponding to the 
commissure of the cotyledons. 7 
In Diospyros, to which I have before alluded, the embryo, which remains in its original 
sac after the expulsion of the redundant amniotic secretions, appears to have preserved its 
relative position in regard to the integuments and raphe, and to be truly anatropous. It 
would however be desirable to ascertain, by the examination of fresh seeds, whether it 
offers any indication of a suspensor. I conjecture from the appearance of the dried seed, 
that a portion of the sac will be found to protrude from the mouth of the albuminous 
cavity which it lines, and from its great tenuity to have withered away, for I have always 
* By this term, I Propose to distinguish an ovule, where its chalazal point, and with it the raphe, effects a complete 
. Cyclical gyration: it is an extensi 
