Mmfapermacea?] flora tndica. 16'.' 



The stamens are normally free and definite, one being placed opposite each petal, 

 so that they form two verticils. In Limacia triandra they are reduced to three ; in 

 another species of the same genus their number is nine; and in Menispermam and 

 Calycocarpum they are indefinite. In Pycnarrhena, Chasmanthera, and Abuta (of 

 Poppig) the filaments are partially monadelphous j and in Parabama, Aspidocarya, 

 and the whole of the tribe Cissampelidea ', they are combined into a central column, 

 bearing on its apex a flat peltate disc, anthcriferous round the margin. In Ana- 

 mirta the structure is still more complex, the anthers being united into a globose 

 mass. 



The ovaries are sometimes seated directly on the torus, but not un frequently they 

 are supported by a distinct gynophore, which becomes very conspicuous as the fruit 

 advances to maturity. Their number is usually three ; but in the tribe Cissampeli- 

 dea! they are always solitary, and in Cocculus ovalifolius and Coscinium there are 

 generally six. In Tiliacora they are indefinite in number. 



The ovary of Menispermacea? is generally oval or oblong, straight on the ventral 

 suture, and rounded on the back, with a terminal style. The ovules are solitary and 

 peltate, and inserted at or below the middle of the ventral suture, with the micro- 

 pyle invariably superior, and the chalaza at the broad end of the ovule, which is 

 nearest the base of the ovary. In Aspidocarya, and an undetermined species nearly 

 allied to it, in which the seed is pendulous and anatropous, the ovule is probably at- 

 tached near the apex of the ovary ; but nevertheless the micropyle and foramen have 

 the same position as iu the rest of the Order. 



During the ripening of the fruit great changes take place in the structure of the 

 ovary. The dorsum grows more rapidly than the ventral part, so that the style or 

 its cicatrix, which is terminal in the ovary, is in the ripe fruit more or less lateral, 

 and in a large part of the Order is situated close to the base of the carpel. Write 

 this irregular development of the parietes of the ovary is proceeding, the inner wall 



almost 



thick 

 At the 



ovary further and further 



fruit; while the putamen, which thus becomes as it were doubled upon itself in- 

 vests it with a bony sheath, which takes a great diversity of form in different parts of 



the Order. . , . .. .. 



Mr. Griffith* has thrown out a conjecture that the woody or bony porhon o 

 the fruit is not putamen, but testa. This view receives some support from the act 

 that only one very delicate coat can be detected on tbe seed and from the pecul.a 

 mode in which the bony coat adapts itself to the shape of the seed; but it is not 

 borne out by a study of the development of the ovule, vvhich we have been able to 

 trace so satisfactorily as to ascertain beyond a doubt that tins coat belongs to the 



ovary, and not to the ovule. ' ti __ , ., ,-. ,„ p.-,,,. 



The form of the embryo is very different in different tr.be* of the Order E*c >t 

 in Atjndocarya it is always more or less curved ; and in the greatei pa o he 

 Order where the stvle-sca/ is situated near the base of the : firm t, the re d d* el h 

 always points towards it, is brought almost into contact w.th «?e tase of the h u.t 

 and the ehalazal extremity of the seed. In the division Hrbv, ,chne« he co t, edo s 

 are foliaeeous and verv thin, and (usually laterally) divar.cated so > as to otcu y cl >- 

 tinct cavities in the albumen. The seed is therefore broad and, but for he peu bar 

 mode of growth of the putamen, would be quite flat, as it .s in the f™*J*?£°- 

 *** This, however, causes it to assume a globular shape ; ^» }^ ^ "• 

 and moulds itself on an internal process of the putamen, which Jlr Miere has 

 called condyle* In the remainder of the Order the narrow, st rap-shaped or h cmi- 



t We have rot^tfhis term, partly because It does noi repre«ui auorgn., 

 or structure analogous 1 to that -^*+*3£i££SKZ21 



are 



z 



