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94 MR. MIERS ON THE OUTER FLESHY COVERING OF THE SEED 
Ryania (Patrisia), as shown in Delessert’s ‘Icones; iii. tab. 14, the seed is covered by a 
similar arilline, and along the whole length of a similar longitudinal raphe, à lateral 
cupular fleshy expansion is developed, manifesting the coexistence of aril and arilline, 
emanating from the same origin. Both these developments also occur in Paropsia, 
where the seeds are suspended by a long funicle, which, at the hilum, is expanded into 
a fleshy cup, that envelopes the lower half of the seed. In Acharia the longitudinal 
raphe becomes distended on each side, forming a lateral gibbous process (Ann. Nat. Hist. 
iii. pl. 9. fig. 15) analogous to that before referred to in Asarum. In Modecca palmata 
an entire and very thick fleshy tunic invests the osseous testa, marked by à prominent 
longitudinal keel, enclosing the raphe (Wight, * Icon.” tab. 201. fig. 12, 13, 14, &c.), and 
in Modecca Wightiana (id. tab. 179. fig. 3) we see precisely the same development, with 
the addition of another crenated hemispherical fleshy cup, covering the base of the seed. 
This is also seen in Modecca australis (Endl. * Icon.’ tab. 115). In all these cases, the 
raphe is perfectly free from the testa, and always forms part of a more external tunie 
more or less adherent to it, the arilliform nature of which has never been doubted; the 
structure is quite analogous to that found in Magnolia, &c., and distinct from the still 
more external development, the true aril. 
The mass of evidence here adduced, strengthened by the observations of botanists of 
high repute, showing the nature of the several metamorphoses which accompany the pro- 
duction of the raphe under its different forms, indicate the real placentary origin, whether 
mediate or immediate, and therefore the arilliform character of the several extraneous 
tunics, which assume such various textures and conditions around the testa,—restricting 
this latter term within the limit usually assigned to it—a simple development and growth 
of the primine of the ovule. The question appears to me so simple and manifest, that I 
should have considered it unnecessary to enter into such-full details in its support, if this 
point of structure had not been so positively denied by the high authorities to which 
I have referred: a desire for the solution of the truth has alone induced me to extend 
these observations to a greater length than otherwise would have been requisite. Many 
other interesting topics of physiological inquiry are connected with the farther considera- 
tion of this subject, and I have prepared another paper, in which are discussed many of 
the phenomena attendant on the peculiar direction of the raphe, especially in reference to 
the anomalies before alluded to, in Stemonurus, Anona, the Cucurbitaceæ, and other 
instances, with a view of tracing the causes of such unusual deviations from the ordinary 
. course of structure. 
