36 DR. J. D. HOOKER ON THE GENERA AND SPECIES 



much in these as in the female flowers, but though they never attain the same develop- 

 ment as thcv do in the males, they approach it, and often contain vascular cords. In 

 one hermaphrodite flower (fig. 9) I found six perigonial scales, symmetrically disposed 

 round the summit of the ovary. 



There is thus in a complete flower of Cynomorium a superior perigonium, an epigynous 

 stamen, a pistil consisting of one cai-pel mth one simple style, and one pendulous ovule, 

 succeeded by an albummous seed: — characters common also to Ilijij^urls, and indicating 

 an affinity I have elsewhere noticed, and endeavoured to support by the structure of other 

 Baltinop/iorece. 



I may here repeat what I have stated in the 'Flora of the Canary Islands' concerning 

 the pistil of Cynomorium ; namely, that the simple concave style with two parallel vas- 

 cular cords terminating an ovary which undoubtedly consists of one carpellary leaf, is a 

 strong evidence of the compoimd nature of a style of the simplest type ; and that the two 

 lateral stigmata are here perfectly obvious : which agrees with Mr. Brown's remarks on 

 the composition, &c. of the pistil* (Plant. Jav. Rar. p. 110 in note). The stigmatic tissue 

 runs down the mesial line of the style, occupying the canal, and is covered by a very 

 delicate epidermis. 



I have never succeeded in tracing the development of the ovule in Cynomorium. The 

 structiu'e of the ripe seed has been determined by Richard, Lindley, and WeddeU ; but 

 admits of some little further illustration. In the first place, the embryo when fully ripe 

 is considerably larger than is figured by any of these authors, and is never exactly 

 globvilar, but sometimes broadly conical, the narrow end being placed next to the firm 

 cellular integument of the seed. It consists of large cells with dark nuclei, full of oil, 

 and presents no integuments whatever : it lies in a cavity of the albumen, nearer the base 

 than the hilum of the seed, with its radicle pointing rather downwards ; and it faces the 

 same way as the concave or grooved surface of the style ; thus indicating that the ovule, 

 if perfect, would have been semi-anatropous with the raphe on the side removed from the 

 placenta; a view confirmed by M. Hofmeister's observation of the pollen-tube in the 

 foramen of the ovule. 



The albumen is of exceedingly firm and dense structure, consisting of thick-walled 

 angular cells with dark-coloured grantdar chlorophyll-grains. Dr. Lindley foimd starch 

 in these cells, wliich is probably present in the young state only, when he describes the 

 albiunen as mucilaginous, and the cells as loosely arranged. I could not detect any, 

 either microscopically, or by the iodine test, which, when applied to the most delicate 

 slices of fully formed albumen, turned its granular cell-contents brown. Mr. WeddeU 

 states that the albiunen as well as the embryo contains oil (Ann. Sc. Nat. I. c. 178) : 

 "dans les Balanophora, dans le Cynomorium, et dans le Sarcophyte, j'ai rencontr^ un 

 albumen charneux ou huileux, et un embryon de meme nature." 



* On showing Mr. Brown my analysis of the style of Cynomoriutn, he informed me that this was a case he had had 

 in view, and that he considered it strongly confirmatory of his theory. 



