178 VEGETABLE ORGANOGRAPHY. 



detached ; but this last character is subject to several 

 exceptions, and we shall presently see that it is often 

 difficult to fix the precise line of demarcation between 

 the pericarp and the seed. 



The funiculus is usually presented under the form 

 of a short and scarcely visible filament ; it is very long 

 either in those fruits where the cells are large, as certain 

 Mimoseae, or where it is curved or folded, as in the same 

 plants, in some Cruciferas, &c, or where it is destined 

 to support the seed when out of the cell : thus, in 

 Magnolia, the free carpels, of which the fruit is com- 

 posed, open along their dorsal suture, and the one or 

 two seeds which they contain hang out, supported by a 

 long, slender, silvery-white, and flexible funiculus. It 

 has been remarked, that it is a bundle of tracheae ; I do 

 not know that any similar observation has been made 

 upon the funiculi, which, in almost all other plants, are 

 not capable of being extended. 



The funiculus is usually free from all adhesion ; but 

 there are plants in which, being very near together, they 

 are constantly united ; this is observed among the Cruci- 

 feras in the genus Eunomia. It more frequently happens 

 that it is found naturally united with the walls of the 

 cells ; thus, for example, in some Cruciferaa, such as 

 Lunaria or Petrocallis, the funiculus is united, through- 

 out its whole length, with the partition in the middle of 

 the fruit. In some Mimoseaa, it adheres to the valve 

 from which it originates ; in these cases, the seed, 

 although arising from the margin of the carpel, seems 

 to proceed from the middle of the partitions or valves. 

 It is possible that it may be from analogous adhesions of 

 the umbilical cord and not of the placenta, that arises 

 the position of the seeds of the Flacourtianeae and 

 Butomeas, scattered over the inner valves of the fruit. 



When the funiculus of a free carpel or of a cell of 



