62.2 PLANTS JAVANIC^} RARIORES. 



regard to the state of the unimpregnated ovulum, which I 

 have some reason to believe is not orthotropous as might 

 be expected, and as it has been described, but apparently 

 anatropous, and that perhaps in the whole tribe. As, 

 however, my observations on this subject are entirely made 

 from the macerated ovaria of dried specimens, the state- 

 ment here made must be received as requiring confirmation 

 from the examination of living plants, aiid of a greater 

 number of species. 1 



From this ordinary direction of embryo in the tribe, the 

 deviations are of two kinds : the first, and no doubt the 

 more important, is that in which the radicle is placed at a 

 point close to the umbilicus, which is the most general 

 structure in Phoenogamous plants ; but as it never points 

 directly within the umbilicus, either in this or any other 

 family, I have modified the expression generally employed 

 in such cases. The second deviation is where the umbilicus 

 is placed on or near the middle of the ripe seed with the 

 radicle pointing to its lower extremity; in other words, 

 where the embryo is parallel to the umbilicus. But this 

 position of umbilicus of the ripe seed does not necessarily 

 imply an exactly similar insertion in the unimpregnated 

 ovulum ; and in this tribe I am inclined to believe that in 

 many cases the foramen of the ovulum is so close to the 

 225] umbilicus as to appear anatropous, and that it ulti- 

 mately becomes more distant from the unequal growth of 

 the opposite extremities of the seed. 



The exceptions to the ordinary structure in Sterculiece 

 which appear to be next in importance are the modifications 

 in texture, and especially in the period of dehiscence of the 

 seed-vessel or carpel, or even its nondehiscence, for in this 

 respect the tribe admits of the two extremes. In the first, 

 where the carpel opens long before the ripening of the 

 seed, its texture is always foliaceous, and the embryo may 



1 The species of Stercidia with orthotropous embryo in which I have found 

 this unexpected position of foramen in the unimpregnated ovulum, avefcetida, 

 guttata, cart hag ineusis, nobilis, and angustifolia ; and in the ripe seeds of traga- 

 canthce, wens, villosa, and quadrifida, an indication of a lateral foramen near the 

 base is still visible, but which mfcetida I have not been able to detect 



