104 MR. MIERS ON SEVERAL INSTANCES OF ANOMALOUS DEVELOPMENT 
substances” (amnios and nucleus) “having these distinct origins, and very different 
textures, may coexist in the ripe seed, as is probably the case in Scitaminee.” In that 
family the embryo is enclosed in a fleshy vitellus, and this again is surrounded by 
albumen: owing to the difference of texture and consistence of the vitellus, its albu- 
minous nature has been denied by some botanists. I have however met with an instance 
of a double albumen in Boldoa fragrans, a Chilean tree belonging to the Monimiacee : 
here the principal oval mass of the kernel of the seed consists of fleshy albumen appa- 
rently formed by two distinct deposits: the rather small embryo is seen with its cotyle- 
dons spread out quite flat by pressure, and as if they were seated astride upon the summit 
of the inner mass of the albumen, with its short radicle standing upwards; and the whole 
is enclosed within another concentric portion, much softer in substance, and formed of oily 
granules of much larger diameter than the close cells of the main inner portion, which is 
whiter, more dense, opaque, and fleshy, and from which it is easily separable in every 
part. Dr. Lindley (Veg. Kingd. p. 298) gives a good sectional analysis of this seed, but 
he has evidently not noticed the difference of the two kinds of albuminous deposit: the 
whole is covered by the proper inner integument, well distinguished at the extremity 
contrary to that where the embryo is seated, by a large dark chalaza, somewhat adherent 
to the outer tunic, which is recognized as being the testa, by its linear raphe, which is 
partly free near its origin. He justly claims for the Monimiaceæ à near affinity to the 
Myristicacee, for the form and position of the embryo quite correspond with those of 
Pyrrhosa, where, had its internal cavity been filled by a second deposit of albuminous 
matter, and were its outer coat not split into lamellar plates, we should have quite the 
seed of Boldoa : the whole plant of this latter genus, and especially its seed, bears a 
strong aromatic smell and taste, similar to that of the Nutmegs. The fact of the 
existence of a double albumen here fully realizes the prediction above quoted of 
Mr. Brown. This structure is of a generic, not of an ordinal character, for it does not 
exist in Mollinedia, å genus numerous in species, nor generally in Citrosma, although I 
have found it occur in one species of the latter genus. Brongniart also has demonstrated 
that albumen is generally formed in the quartine or cellular lining of the tercine, in which 
case he calls it the *perisperm, and at other times, though more rarely, within the 
embryo-sac, and then he gives it the name of « endosperm*.’ Boldoa hence possesses 
both a perisperm and endosperm, one concentric to the other, although the embryo-sac | 
has entirely disappeared ; but if the latter had remained persistent, if the endosperm had 
been absorbed, and the embryo and the perisperm had retained their present form and 
position, the seed of Boldoa would have been like that of Stemonurus, with the exception 
of the peculiar form and termination of its raphe. 
In this stage of the investigation, it is desirable to recall to our memory the nature and 
origin of the embryo-sac. This vesicle, called by Gærtner the sac of the amnios, was 
ges Malpighi and Grew, who showed that it originated from that point of 
es ch I have called the gangylode, or the point of vascular connexion of the 
TAN ia tenis with the main body of the ovule, and with the placentary sheath, 
rwards becomes the chalaza of the inner integument, the diapyle in the 
* Ann. Se, Nat. xii. 265. 
