2 
parte fungosum, magis minusve nucleo adhaerens ; albumen lutescens, 
firme carnosum, oleo solido repletum. yo magnus, transversus ; 
cotyledones cordatae, duplo latiores quam longae, venosae ; radicula 
evis.—Plagiostyles Klaineana, Pierre in Bull. Soc. Linn. Paris, 
vol. ii. p. 1827; Pax in Engl. & Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam. Nachtr. 
II. pars 3, p. 38; De Wild. & Dur. in Bull. Herb. Boiss. sér. 2, vol. i. 
p. 836, e Reliq. Dewevr. vol. ii. p. 205; De Wild. Etudes Fl. Bas- 
et Moyen-Congo, vol. ii. p. 270; Th. et Hél. Durand, Syll. Fl. Congol., 
p. 487; C. H. Wright in Dyer, Fl. Tr. Afr., vol. vi. pars 1, Heth; 
Prain in Dyer, lc. p. 1001. Daphniphyllum africanum, Muell. Arg. 
in Flora, 1864, vol. xlvii. p. 536, et in DC. Prodr., vol. xvi. pars i. p. 5. 
: n 
Gaboon ; Libreville, Klaine, 555, 640, 645, 1010, 1095, 1096, 1202 
Belgian Congo ; Stanley Pool district, Kimuenza, Gillet, 1716 ; Dembo 
marshes, Gillet, 1562; Sanda, Oddon : Djuma Valley, Gentil. 
his plant is remarkable on account of the very rare, if not unique, 
occasional presence of a second ovule, the family of Euphorbiaceae 
ing otherwise very sharply divided into strictly l-ovulate and 
strictly 2-ovulate genera. When Pierre described Plagiostyles (l.c., 
p- 1326), he said: ‘Au sommet latéral de la loge unique, on voit 
deux ovules collatéraux et anatropes 4 opercule trés petit, dont un 
seul devient fertile. L’ovule stérile prend la forme d’un petit disque 
induré et reste appliqué contre la graine tout prés de son funicle.’ 
This was in 1896. Later on, in 1899, he distributed specimens of 
Plagiostyles with this note ‘ Quand jai publié ce genre (Soc. Linn. 
Par. p. 1326) n’ayant . . . des fruits 3 ispositi 
5 
B 
8 
The case in question is illustrated by 
figs. 12 and 14. The funicle of the aborted ovule and that of the 
perfect one which developed into a normal seed sprang side by side 
from the normal point of attachment. The former was free and could 
easily be lifted up; the latter, in the mature seed, was adnate to the 
seed, forming its raphe. Hardly less remarkable is the transformation 
