PLANTS JAVANICE RAR10RES. 657 



Semen unicum, testa? cum samarae cavitate cohaerens et 

 omnino replens, striatum, subcylindraceum ; integumentum 

 praeterea unicum, membranaceum, albumini arete adhaerens. 

 Albumen semini conforme, aqueo-pallidum, dense carnosum. 

 Embryo in apice (respectu pericarpii) albuminis, minutissi- 

 raus ; radicula brevis, supera ; cotyledon adhucdum indi- 

 visus, subglobosus, obtusissimus. 



Obs. There are some points both in the botanical 

 history and in the structure of the genus Cardiopteris which 

 deserve to be specially noticed. It is probable that a short 

 time before the publication of the 10th edition of his 

 'System a Naturae/ in 1759, Linnaeus had particularly exa- 

 mined the figures of the ' Herbarium Amboinense,' for in 

 that edition almost the only figures quoted of the different 

 species of Dioscorea are those of that work, and under 

 Dioscorea sativa he refers to Olus sanguinis, vol. v, p. 482, 

 tab. 180, which is an undoubted and a tolerably good 

 representation of Cardiopteris moluccana of Blume ; and in 

 proof of Linnaeus having no doubt as to the correctness of 

 his reference, he has in his own copy of the work written 

 Dioscorea sativa under the figure quoted. This synonym 

 is adopted by Willdenow in his edition of ' Species Planta- 

 rum.' J. G. Kcenig, in vol. iii, p. 81 of his manuscripts, 

 formerly in Sir Joseph Banks's Library, now in the 

 Banksian or Botanical Department of the British Museum, 

 quotes the same figure of Rumphius (with a doubt, however, 

 as to the correctness of Linnaeus's reference to Dioscorea) 

 for a plant which is no doubt Cardiopteris lobata, from his 

 description in many respects very good, and with regard to 

 stigma more nearly correct than some recent accounts. 

 Kcenig considers his plant to be monoicous, as does 

 Hasskarl (supr. cit.) : I also entertained the same opinion, 

 having never found flowers with completely developed 

 pistillum in which the corolla and consequently stamina 

 were present. This, however, might depend on the 

 advanced state of the flower whose corolla had fallen soon 

 after expansion. Dr. Blume, therefore, is perhaps more cor- 

 rect in considering the flowers as hermaphrodite, and I am 



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