334 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF 



iiiatious matter of the Crinoid could doubtless have passed out under the foot 

 of the rialycerax, supposing the opening in the Crinoid sometimes covered by 

 these shells to haAe been the anus, but it is difficult to conceive how food 

 could have passed in, if we suppose this opening to be the mouth. 



On the Seed Vessels of FOESYTHIA. 

 BY THOMAS MEEHAN. 



Forsytlda sm^penaa Vahl., and F. viridissima Lindl., two Chinese plants, have 

 I believe, never been known to produce perfect seed, though common in cul- 

 tivation. The latter rarely produces capsules; the former bears capsules 

 freely, but no perfect seed. 



These two plants have strong specific differences ; yet my studies in devel- 

 opment, as published in papers in our Proceedings, lead me to believe them 

 to have an unity of origin. Noticing last spring that the stamens in F. siis- 

 j>ensa, and the pistil in F. viridissima, were relatively more highly developed, 

 I supposed the two might possibly be, as we say practically, male and female 

 forms of the same thing. I impregnated flowers of F. viridissima with pollen from 

 F. siispensa, and for the first time had the opportunity of examining perfect 

 capsules of this species. The seeds, however, though apparently mature, 

 proved imperfect on dissection. There is no doubt but thac F. suspeitsa con- 

 ferred on the other the power to produce capsules, — why not the additional 

 power of perfect seeds is a mystery, — though not more so perhaps than that 

 it should Itself be able to produce only seedless capsules. Another form is 

 ])robably missing, necessary to fertilize the plant and furnish the wanting 

 link to prove the hypothesis of a unity of origin. 



But some useful facts proceed from the experiment. The capsule of F. 

 viridissima I believe has never been described. Lindley, the author of the 

 species, does not seem to have seen it. It is broadly ovate, sharp pointed, 

 ai,d wrinkled, carpels of a thin papery texture, bivalvate. Seeds resem- 

 bling small grains of white wheat, wingless, developing upwards a swell as 

 down from the funiculus, shining, and profusely pitted with small dots. The 

 peduncles are rather shorter than the pods. One capsule ivas four-celled, ^ciih 

 seeds in each division. 



F. siispensa is variously described by different authors. Bunge says the 

 capsule is '-about four-seeded," Endlicher " few," and Zuccarini "numer- 

 ous." The author makes the seeds " narrowly winged." I find the capsule 

 narrowly lanceolate, ligneous, and verrucose, on pedicels double its length, 

 composed of two carpels, in one of which I counted sixteen immature winged 

 seeds; one, however, was full}" developed, although as in the other form im- 

 perfect, and this was wingless, exactly resembling those of F. viridissima in all 

 but color, which was a little darker. 



The chief interest is the relation these capsules exhibit to Syringa and to 

 the allied orders of Solanacere and Jasminaceap. It was plain in the four- 

 celled taj)sule of F. viridissima that plaeentous matter pushes out from the 

 central axis in four directions, though usually the two alternates are destitute 

 of ovules. When barren it is most highly developed. On perfect seeds it 

 forms no margin ; on imperfect ones a wing, until in Syringa, where the 

 productive division bears only a single winged seed, the unproductive one is 

 expanded into a long broad wing, pushing through the whole length of the 

 incurved carpellary margins, cementing them closely together, and thus 

 necessitating the peculiar dorsal dehiscence familiar in the common Lilac. 

 A slight difference in the vigor of plaeentous development constitutes the 

 chief cause of the differences in these three forms of capsule. 



The polyspermous placentation of Forsythia indicates an approach to Sola- 

 nacea>, and the erect tendency of the seeds to Jasmiuaceffi. 



[Dec. 



