110 MR. MIERS ON SEVERAL INSTANCES OF ANOMALOUS DEVELOPMENT 



from view, and has thus remained imnoticed. The assurance that such a movement 

 mvist actually have taken place, is proved hy the form of the raphe, and the very different 

 position of the integuments in the ripe seed to that which they ought to have, according 

 to the usual structural development. It is more than probable that the embryo-sac stiU 

 remaias immediately investing the embryo, in the CucHrbitacece, but this is not easily 

 discernible, as there is no albumen, and as the primine and secundine, and probably also 

 the tercine, become resolved into delicate membranes. Mirbel showed that about the 

 period of fecundation, the embryo- sac had broken away from the gangylode; and we must 

 assume, in order to account for the changes that subsequently occurred, that it also 

 separated itself afterwards at the summit from the micropyle ; but if the integimients 

 received a subsequent amount of torsion, why did not the embryo-sac, or at least the 

 embryo, foUow the same movement ? What could have retained the embryo in the same 

 position it previously held, during the second inversion of the primine and secundine ? 

 The whole of this oeconomy is so extraordinary, as to call for the especial investigation of 

 some able botanist, accustomed to accurate and delicate examination. I have simply 

 announced the facts as I have found them, leaving it to be determined how far the hints 

 above given, respecting the nature of these changes, may prove well-founded, or how far 

 the whole matter may be modified by farther evidence. 



The facts detailed in the preceding part of this paper clearly show, that the genus 

 TJrandra of Mr. Thwaites bears no relation whatever to the family of the Olacacece, 

 and we have irresistible evidence that it differs in no respect from Stemonurus, 

 with which genus it must remain, like Gomphandra, another of its synonyms ; it 

 agrees •with it in its eupuliform, 5-toothed, persistent calyx, its five acuminated linear 

 smooth valvate petals, its five alternate stamens, with thick filaments clothed at their 

 summit mth cJavate hairs, oblong anthers somewhat divergent below, a conical ovary 

 encircled at its base by a small annular gland, and unilocular, with two suspended ovules, 

 a short style, and a small subcapitate stigma. The di'upe and seed, as described by 

 Mr. Thwaites, agree in every respect in their extraordinary development with what I 

 have shown to exist in Stemonurus, and there is not one single feature, among those 

 described, that I can discover, at variance with that genus. The plant of Mr. Thwaites, 

 which appears to differ specifically from others on record, must therefore bear the name 

 of Stemonurus apicalis. 



The remarks of Mr. Thwaites contained in his paper above cited, relative to the Ceylon 

 species of Stemonurus described by me, will form the subject of a distinct notice. 



