1902.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PIirLADELnilA. 123 



leave the seed and become aerial. The cotyledons of Walsiira 

 piscidia Roxb. are fleshy, remaining in the seed. The first pair of 

 opposite leaves are reduced to small brown scales, the third to the 

 sixth are small, oval, emarginate and entire. The seventh to the 

 ninth are much larger, oval, emarginate and entire. Engler and 

 PrantP illustrate the germination of the seeds of a species of 

 Xyloearpns (Carapa moluccensis) , the illustration being copied from 

 a paper by Karsten.* From the figure (i?), it would appear that 

 the cotyledons remain enclosed in the seed, the hypocotyl being 

 thick and fleshy. The radicular part, from which the secondary 

 roots arise, is swollen and bulb-like. The first twelve pairs of 

 leaves are opposite and scale-like. The stem arises from the point 

 where the hj'pocotyl emerges from the seed. The following descrip- 

 tion of the germination of the seeds of Carapa guianensis Aubl. 

 from material obtained in July, 1901, at Castleton, Jamaica, and 

 preserved in two per cent, formalin, is, therefore, given as in part 

 a contribution to the biology of the order Meliacece. 



The capsule of this plant is large, about the size and shape of a 

 cocoanut. It is ridged with four prominent warty-looking ridges 

 which come together in a heavy apical protuberance. 



There are four valves, thick (^ inch) and woody, separating 

 from each other from the base upw^ard to the apex. The capsule is 

 filled with angular seeds (figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, 6), with a smooth or 

 slightly wrinkled, brown outer seed-coat. Ten or a dozen of these 

 large seeds are snugly packed away inside the woody fruit walls. 

 Germination begins after the capsule has dehisced and while the 

 fruit still lies upon the surface of the ground beneath the parent 

 tree. The seeds start to germinate (fig. 6) before they fall out of 

 the capsule, and later they are held in place by the intricately 

 woven mass of secondarj'^ roots which grow in all directions be- 

 tween the closely wedged seeds. The stem elongates some four to 

 six inches and emerges from the interior of the partially opened 

 seed vessel between the slightly sprung edges of the valves (figs. 

 4, 5). All of the seeds of a single capsule may germinate in situ, 

 and the complex of roots makes it a rather difficult matter to sep- 

 arate the seeds from each other after germination has once begun. 

 It Avould seem that the seeds lose their vitality more or less quickly 



' Engler and Prantl, Die naiurlichen Pflanzenfam., Ill, 4, 279. 

 * Karsten, BibUotheca Botaniea, XXII, 21, Pis. 7 and 8. 



