101 MR. MIERS ON SEVERAL INSTANCES OF ANOMALOUS DEVELOPMENT 



substances" (amnios and nucleus) "having these distinct origins, and very different 

 textures, may coexist in the ripe seed, as is probably the case ra Scitaminece." In that 

 family the embryo is enclosed ia a fleshy viteUus, and this again is surrounded by 

 albumen : owing to the difference of texture and consistence of the vitellus, its albu- 

 minous nature has been denied by some botanists. I have however met with an instance 

 of a double albumen in Boldoa fragrans, a Chilean tree belonging to the Monimiacece : 

 here the principal oval mass of the kernel of the seed consists of fleshy albumen appa- 

 I'ently formed by two distinct deposits : the rather small embryo is seen with its cotyle- 

 dons spread out quite flat by pressure, and as if they were seated astride upon the summit 

 of the inner mass of the albumen, with its short radicle standing upwards ; and the whole 

 is enclosed within another concentric portion, much softer in substance, and formed of oily 

 granules of much larger diameter than the close cells of the main inner portion, which is 

 winter, more dense, opaque, and fleshy, and from which it is easily separable in every 

 pai-t. Dr. Lindley (Veg. Kingd. p. 298) gives a good sectional analysis of tliis seed, but 

 he has evidently not noticed the difference of the two kinds of albuminous deposit ; the 

 whole is covered by the proper inner integument, well distinguished at the extremity 

 contrary to that where the embryo is seated, by a large dark chalaza, somewhat adherent 

 to the outer tunic, which is recognized as being the testa, by its linear raphe, which is 

 partly free near its origin. He justly claims for the Monimiacece a near affinity to the 

 Myristicacece, for the form and position of the embryo quite correspond with those of 

 Fyrrhosa, where, had its internal cavity been filled by a second deposit of albuminous 

 matter, and were its outer coat not split into lamellar plates, we should have qixite the 

 seed of Boldoa : the whole plant of this latter genus, and especially its seed, bears a 

 strong aromatic smell and taste, similar to that of the Nutmegs. The fact of the 

 existence of a double albumen here fiiUy realizes the prediction above quoted of 

 Mr. Brown. This structure is of a generic, not of an ordinal character, for it does not 

 exist in MolUnedia, a genus numerous in species, nor generally in Citrosma, although I 

 have fovmd it occur in one species of the latter genus. Brongniart also has demonstrated 

 that albumen is generally formed in the quartine or cellular lining of the tercine, in which 

 case he calls it the 'perisperm,' and at other times, though more rarely, within the 

 embryo-sac, and then he gives it the name of ' endosperm*.' Boldoa hence possesses 

 both a perisperm and endosperm, one concentric to the other, although the embryo-sac 

 has entirely disappeared ; but if the latter had remained persistent, if the endosperm had 

 been absorbed, and the embryo and the perisperm had retained their present form and 

 position, the seed of Boldoa would have been Kke that of Stemonurus, with the exception 

 of the peculiar form and termination of its raphe. 



In this stage of the investigation, it is desirable to recall to our memory the nature and 

 origin of the embryo-sac. This vesicle, called by Gsertner the sac of the amnios, was 

 first observed by Malpighi and Grew, who showed that it originated from that point of 

 the ovule which I have called the gangylode, or the point of vascular connexion of the 

 primine and secundine with the main body of the ovule, and with the placentary sheath, 

 a point which afterwards becomes the chalaza of the inner integument, the diapyle in the 



* Ann. Sc. Nat. xii. 265. 



