108 



ON SEEDLINGS 



to each other, face to face, with their backs to the ventral suture of 

 the fruit and their edges in consequence at right angles to the plane 

 of the seed, a little longer than the radicle ; radicle cylindrical, 

 obtuse, superior, and close to the base of the style. 



Seedling (fig. 141). 



Hypocotyl sub-erect, rather firm, about 2-5 cm. long, T5 mm. 

 thick, terete, glabrous. 



Cotyledons sessile, semi-erect, about 3 cm. long, 1-2 mm. broad, 

 semiterete, entire, obscurely nerved, twisted, glabrous, pale green, 

 caducous. 



Stem slender, twining, the first 

 few internodes 5-7*5 mm. long, 1 

 mm. thick, terete, glabrous, light 

 brown. 



Leaves simple, cauline, alternate, 

 exstipulate, petiolate, more or less 

 lobed or angled, peltate, palmati- 

 nerved and reticulate, glabrous, 

 membranous, more or less glaucous 

 above, paler beneath with a glaucous 

 bloom ; petiole terete, slightly taper- 

 ing upwards, glabrous. 



No. 1. Peltate, cordate at the 

 base, more or less obtusely five- 

 angled, radiately five- to seven- 

 nerved and closely reticulated. 



No. 2. Similar, but often smaller, 

 three- to five-angled, shallowly cor- 



FIG. 141. Memspermum canadense. , , , 



Half nat. size. date at the base. 



BERBERIDE.E. 



Benth. et Hook. Gen. PI. i. 40. 



Fruit and Seed. The fruit of the Berberideae is a berry or 

 capsule. The ovules are two to indefinite, very rarely solitary, 

 generally anatropous and erect, with the raphe ventral, some- 

 times orthotropous. The seeds contain a copious, fleshy or 

 somewhat hard endosperm ; and the embryo is frequently 



