432 Mr. J. Miers on the Genus Rhabdia. 
turned backwards, each margin havinga single ovule attached 
to it. The fruit is a succulent drupe containing four nucules, 
evidently at first combined together in pairs, and afterwards 
free; upon one margin only of each nucule, always on the 
contiguous side of each pair, there is seen a fungous longitu- 
dinal line, which penetrates the cell through an open corre- 
sponding shit; and upon this fungous line the single seed is 
attached, at a small spot halfway between the middle and the 
summit: this fungous line seems to belong to the original 
placenta seen in the ovary. The seed is long, pointed at both 
extremities, and on its outer integument a line of raphe is seen 
running from the point of its attachment to a small chalaza at 
the base ; its embryo, enveloped in solid albumen, has a small 
superior radicle and two oblong foliaceous cotyledons, with 
their face turned to the centre of the fruit. One important 
part of this structure is the axile column, or, as some would 
call it, the gynobase, although it is in the form of a spindle- 
shaped vesicular membranaceous tube, originating at its base 
in the extremely small torus, and terminating at its summit in 
continuity with the persistent style, where it also unites with 
the pericarpial covering of the fruit; it has four distinct longi- 
tudinal cords or bundles of spiral threads terminating in the 
style, some of which adhere to the fungous lines seen upon the 
nucules ; this tube touches the smooth ventral faces of the 
nuts, without absolutely adhering to them; there is no trace 
of any basal gynobasic attachment of the nuts, which do not 
even touch the torus. 
It has been already noticed (supra, p. 123) that this struc- 
ture cannot be reconciled either with the Heliotropiacee or 
with Hhretiacee under the conditions hitherto supposed to 
exist. The reality of the organization above described is, 
however, unquestionable, being clearly illustrated by Von 
Martius in the work referred to, in like manner depicted by 
Dr. Wight (Icon. 1385) and by Sir Wm. Hooker (Icon. 823). 
In searching for a parallel structure, we naturally come upon 
the Hydrophyllacee, with which Rhabdia agrees in having a 
deeply 5-cleft calyx, a campanular corolla with a 5-lobed 
border, five equal subexserted stamens affixed near the bottom 
of the tube of the corolla, 2-lobed anthers, a simple style 
with a 2-lobed stigma, a superior 1-celled ovary with a parietal 
placentation, as before explained, and albuminous seeds en- 
closing an embryo with a superior radicle: but here the ana- 
logy ceases ; for it differs in its suffruticose virgate growth, the 
stems crowded with simple, almost sessile leaves, the want of 
scales in the tube of the corolla, and in the totally different 
structure of the fruit. 
