733 



The tercine (c) is suspended from the top of h, and constitutes the al- 

 bumen in the mature seed. It is already white and amylaceous in- 

 ternally, and is surrounded by a yellowish skin. The upper part of 

 the tercine or albumen contains a cavity (the embryo-sac) which gra- 

 dually narrows to the top, where there is no visible orifice. Within 

 this cavity is suspended, from the apex of the tercine, a bundle of fi- 

 bres [d], composed of large, elongated, crooked cellules, enlarging as 

 they descend, each fibre slightly cohering to those which are in con- 

 tact with it. Three or four of the terminal cells of the bundle, are 

 tipped each with a roundish mass of opaque granular matter, one of 

 which at length grows larger than the rest ; and this it is, which, after 

 much pains devoted to the enquiry, I am led to consider as the rudi- 

 mentary embryo.* It is shown in the drawing at fig. 2, where a re- 

 presents a longitudinal section of the albumen, the upper part of which 

 is lacerated by art, in order to display the contained parts, namely, 

 the rudimentary embryo (5) suspended by the lax and tortuous bun- 

 dle of vessels already described, and which in an earlier stage is seen 

 at fig. 3. 



In a few instances the immature or green berries of the present sea- 

 son had the embryo completely formed, extending from one end of 

 the albumen to the other, as in the fully ripe berries of the former year, 

 still remaining on the same plants. In these the umbilical cord {d) 

 is pushed up and crumpled into a narrow space at the top, and by its 

 presence at that stage has materially assisted me in ascertaining that 

 the body c is not itself the embryo, but the nidus in which the embryo 

 is elaborated, long after the usual period of fecundation. 



From the foregoing account it seems very improbable that so many 

 newly developed parts should derive their existence fiom a pollen - 

 tube, while the embryo itself is still in a rudimentary state j and the 

 idea of the formation of a vesicule emhryonnaire {utricule primordi- 

 ale, Mirbel), such as Brongniart describes it, appears to be utterly in- 

 admissible in the present case. Questions of this intricate nature are 

 however to be disposed of only after rigorous investigation ; and it is 

 hoped that some of the readers of ' The Phytologist ' will be able to 

 supply the hnks which are wanting to complete the present enquiry. 



As an appendix to my remarks on Statice Armeria (Phytol. 657), I 

 wish to state that during my absence from home two other species, — 



* It may possibly be the utricule primordiale of Mirbel and Spacli, " whose special 

 office it is to form the embryo, (dont roflSce special est de commencer rembryoii,)'' 



