Mr. J. Miers on the Bignoniacese. 157 



sharp angular edges produced by the strong mutual pressure of 

 growth : had they been relieved from this pressure, their shape 

 would have been nearly spherical. A longitudinal section of 

 one of these seeds shows, within the thick coriaceous testa, a 

 nearly circular space, which is divided by a broad septum into 

 two equal complete cells : this septum is entire throughout, ex- 

 cept a very small linear foramen in the centre, which aperture 

 • is filled by the central radicle of the embryo, while the space of 

 the two cells is occupied by the cotyledonary portion, which is 

 divided into four equal lobes, as in the instances before described : 

 these lobes are thick and fleshy, plano-convex, in contiguous 

 pairs, and are united by the central short terete radicle, the ex- 

 tremity of which is centrifugal, pointing to the large broad basal 

 hilum. 



In Spathodea campanulata the 4-celled capsule is represented 

 by Palisot de Beauvois* as having numerous orbicular lenti- 

 cular seeds, with a narrow wing, all packed together in a hori- 

 zontal position, as in Calampelis (not parallel to the dissepiment), 

 and attached to the inner angle of each cell by a linear hilum 

 along its truncated margin, and this margin is somewhat in- 

 duplicated within the testa. The embryo is shown to be formed 

 of four cotyledonary lobes attached to the apex of the terete radicle 

 equal to them in length, as in Argylia ; they are not spread out 

 in opposite pairs, as in that genus, but are folded and parallelly 

 superposed upon one another, their outer margins lying in pairs 

 right and left of the induplicature of the testa, the cross-section 

 of its internal space being thus hippocrepiform : the radicle is 

 placed in contiguity to this semiseptum, so that the edges of 

 all the four cotyledonary lobes are thus accumbent upon it 

 and close to the line of the raphe. A similar induplicature 

 of the cotyledonary lobes is figured in Delessert's ' Icones ' (v. 

 tab. 93 b), in Kigelia, a genus of Crescentiacea. 



In Stereospermum chelonoides (taking Dr. Wight's analytical 

 figures t for guidance, the correctness of which I am able to 

 verify), the integuments of the seed are inflected, by a deep 

 plicature, into the dorsal face, and thus produce a transverse 

 semiseptum within the discoidal portion, in a contrary direction 

 to that of Anemojmgjna : this protrudes into the middle of the 

 cavity of the crustaceous integument. The cotyledons are cleft 

 almost to the base, and are folded as in the last instance, so that 

 their four lobes lie with their external edges in pairs on each 

 side of the semiseptum, and in this manner are lodged in the 

 incomplete cells so formed : the internal edges of the lobes thus 

 become accumbent on the radicle, which corresponds in direction 



* Flor. Ovvar. tab. 28. t Icoaes, tab. VM\. 



