﻿INOCARPUS EDULIS, Forst, 

 Leguminosj;. (Genos anomalum). 

 I. edulis, Forst., Benth. in Journ. Linn. Soc. (Bot.) vi. 149. 

 This plate is simply intended to put on record the structure of the 

 n mit, \\ bich has not hitherto, so far as I am aware, been correctly re- 

 presented. Our figures are from excellent specimens in fluid brought 

 home by Mr. Lister from Christmas Island on the occasion of his 

 recent visit in the surveying ship ' Egeria.' An elaborate description of 

 la given by Gaertner (fil.) in ' Carpologiaa Suppl.' 114, cum 

 tabb,, but, I take it, his figure is from a fruit in which germination had 

 commenced, at least to the extent of the absorption of the inner stratum 

 of the pericarp, and corresponding enlargement of the cotyledons, 

 which are shown with a remarkable reticulate corrugation of the outer 



In our specimens the roundish compressed fruits are from 2| in. 

 to 3^ in. long and broad ; the diameters nearly equal, varying to nearly 

 1 1 in. in thickness. The surface is quite smooth, the style-scar slightly 

 oblique, a narrow ridge on one edge of the fruit terminating imme- 

 diately under it. Our specimens in spirits are dark reddish-brown in 

 colour. The pericarp is very thick in transverse section, about J in. 

 on the side toward the external ridge. The outer and thick 

 of this pericarp is firm, though easily cut with the knife, and exhibits 

 in section a copious, more or less radiating, somewhat fibrous vascu- 

 larity; the inner narrower stratum is fleshy, and nearly uniform in 

 section. The seed occupies a roundish, shallow, slightly unilateral 

 cavity; it is broadly reniform, much compressed, laterally affixed, 

 nearly quite smooth, 7-8 lines by 5-6 lines long and broad ; testa thin 

 and papery, closely investing the embryo. The material available 

 does not enable me to say anything satisfactory as to the radicle and 

 plumule. — D. Oliver. 



Fitr. 1. Fruit. '_'. Samr- in loncitudinal section. •'>. Seed m section. 4, Embryo. 



