122 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [March, 



/I 



THE GERMINATION OF THE SEEDS OF CARAPA GUIANENSIS Aubl. 

 BY JOBN W. HARSHBERGER, PH.D. 



Tie genus Carapa (nat. ord. MeliacecB) comprises a number 

 of tropical forest trees with pinnate leaves and floweijs borne in 

 few- ,or many-flowered axillary panicles. The following species of 

 Ihe genus are recognized by the Index Kewensis, viz. : Carapa 

 guianensis Aubl. from Guianp, and tropical Africa; C. moluccensis 

 Lam.\ from the Malay archipelago; C. nicaraguensis C.D.C. 

 from Central America; C. procera D.C. from Asia and tropical 

 Africa^ C. siirinamensis Miq. from Guiana. Carapa moluecensis 

 is a mapgrove, and Karsten has removed this species from the genus 

 Carapa, placing it under the generic name Xylocarpus. 



The fruits of the plants of the genus Carapa are, spherical or 

 ovoid capsules, thick, woody, mostly waited, opening by septifragal 

 dehiscence into five valves. The seeds are large, thick, angular, 

 with woody brown seed-coats (PI. VIII, figs. 1, 2, 3, 6). The 

 food substance in tihe form of endosperm is wanting, and the 



cotyledons are thick and 



conferruminate (fig. 8a). The only 



illustrations of the jfruits ajnd seeds of this genois, as far as the 

 writer has been able to ascertain, are those published by Engler 

 and Prantl,; 1 where the flowers, ovary and fruit of Carapa procera 

 D.C. are s^iown, but not in germination. JLubbock and Karsten 

 have studied the germination of the seeds of -several related genera 

 of the same order, MeliaeevQ, and the substance of their studies is 

 here briefly given by way of summing up oir knowledge concern- 

 ing the sprouting o;f the see^s of the plants jof this family. Lub- 

 bock 2 describes 'o.nd figures the germination and I seedlings of Melia 

 azedarach L. and Walsura piscidia Roxb. 4a ,lhe pride of China 

 (Melia azederach L. ) the cotyledons are linear-Oblong, obtuse, 

 narrowed to a short petiole. The first leaves are opposite, tripar- 

 tite; the succeeding leaves are compound pinnate/ The cotyledons 



1 Die naturlichen Pflanzenfamilien, III, 4, s. 277. 



2 LUBBOCK, Contributions to our Knowledge of Seedlings, I, 335. 



