102 MR. MIERS ON SEVERAL INSTANCES OF ANOMALOUS DEVELOPMENT 



pleting its cii-ciiit penetrates the testa through the diapyle, at a point where the two 

 extremities of the recurved embryo are brought into close contiguity, although separated 

 by a peculiar inflexion of the inner integument, close to the chalaza, so that this integu- 

 ment is here bisaccate, one recess receiving the end of the radicle, the other the extre- 

 mities of the cotyledons. In this case there appears no vestige of any embryo-sac, and 

 although the raphe is completely cyclotropal*, only the cotyledonary or chalazal extremity 

 of the embryo has accompanied it in effecting an entire revolution, while its radicular end 

 has remained anatropal, having experienced only a half-gyi'ation. This example therefore, 

 although analogous in some respects, affords no assistance towai'ds an explanation of the 

 phajnomena of Stemonurus. 



In the Fhimbaginacece, we have a remarkable instance of the complete gyration of the 

 o\itle under very different cu-cumstances : in an early stage it is simply inverted according 

 to the ordinary course of anatropal development, that is to say, a semi-gyration of the 

 entii-e ovule on its centre, accompanied by the usual extension and adhesion of the placen- 

 tary sheath or future raphe on the ventral side of the primine : subsequently a farther 

 growth of the placentary sheath, or rather of the fimicular attachment of the ovide, takes 

 place, which becomes prolonged into a free cord, which, by its growth, again pushes the 

 ovule onward, so as to tm-n it farther round on its centre, another half-revolution : the 

 result is, that the funicular cord, arising in a free state from the base of the ovary, attains 

 the summit of its cell, and from it the anatropal oxiile is suspended ; its cotyledonary 

 or chalazal extremity thus retui'ns to its normal position in regard to the carpel, after 

 having performed a complete revolution on its centre, at the same time that it has only 

 effected a half-revolution in resj^ect to the point by ^^'hich it was originally attached to 

 the placenta. The embryo diu'ing all these changes continues perfectly straight ; the 

 placentary sheath or fii'st expansion of the funicvilar cord remains adherent to the primine 

 in the usual manner, while its subsequent extension is permanent as a free cord, so that 

 the ovule, though strictly and simply anatrojial in respect to the raphe, is in fact 

 cyclotropal in regard to the carpel. This development is again different to that 

 observed in Stemonurus, inasmuch as the embryo has remained stationary, or what is 

 almost tantamount, has made a complete gyration on its centre. One parallel circum- 

 stance however exists in the form of the albumen, which, as in that genus, consists of two 

 parallel plates united on their periphery by a thin annular zone corresponding to the 

 commissure of the cotyledons. 



In Diospyros, to which I have before alluded, the embryo, which remains in its original 

 sac after the expulsion of the redundant amniotic secretions, appears to have preserved its 

 relative position in regard to the integuments and raphe, and to be truly anatropous. It 

 would however be desirable to ascertain, by the examination of fresh seeds, whether it 

 offers any indication of a suspeusor. I conjectm-e from the appearance of the di-ied seed, 

 that a portion of the sac will be found to protrude from the mouth of the albuminous 

 cavity which it lines, and from its great tenuity to have withered away, for I have always 



* By this term, I propose to distinguish an ovule, where its chalazal point, aiul with it the raphe, effects a complete 

 cyclical gyration : it is an extension of the campulitropal where the same point makes |ths of a revolution, while 

 anatropal it completes ^, and in amphitropal only j of a revolution. 



