106 ON SEEDLINGS 



petiolate, glabrous, dark shining green above, paler beneath, slightly 

 reflexed, about 25 mm. long, 6-12 mm. wide, with a distinct mid- 

 rib and numerous veinlets, united at their tips, giving the appear- 

 ance of two lateral veins. In other species of this genus the cotyle- 

 dons usually remain within the seed. 



Stem herbaceous, erect, terete, glabrous, light green ; 1st and 

 2nd internode 5-10 mm. long. 



Leaves lanceolate, acuminate, otherwise as in A. Cherimolia. 



MENISPERMACEJE. 



Benth. et Hook. Gen. PI. i. 30. 



Fruit and Seed. The carpels are free and ripen into baccate 

 or drupaceous fruits. The placental or ventral suture of the 

 endocarp enlarges or thickens into a hemispherical process 

 projecting into the cavity of the ovary and determines the shape 

 of the seed. The endocarp is also considerably flattened late- 

 rally and forms a strong submarginal moon-shaped ridge on 

 both surfaces close to the outer or dorsal suture. This ridge 

 lodges the correspondingly thickened part of the seed con- 

 taining the embryo. 



The ovule is amphitropous almost throughout the Order 

 and is peltately affixed to the enlarged or hemispherical 

 placenta. In a very few cases it is anatropous. The seed is 

 generally crescent-shaped. The endosperm is fleshy and mode- 

 rately copious in the TinosporesB and Cocculese, but scanty 

 in the Cissampelidese, and absent in Pachygonese. 



In the first tribe above mentioned there is considerable 

 range of variety in the shape of the embryo. The cotyledons 

 of Aspidocarya are flat, spreading at the base, and parallel 

 above ; those of Parabsena and Tinospora are ovate and 

 diverging laterally, those of Anamirta are narrow, very slender 

 and diverging, while Coscinium has a fleshy, much ruminated 

 endosperm, a short, nearly straight embryo, with slender, 

 diverging, deeply sinuately-laciniate cotyledons. 



The embryo in the tribes Cocculese and Cissampelideae is 

 cylindrical with adpressed cotyledons, and resembles that of 

 Menispermum (fig. 140) with the exception that it is straight 



