198 



ON SEEDLINGS 



is horny. In most cases, however, the seeds are smooth, while 

 in Bixa and Dendrostylis they are covered with an aril or pulp. 

 The interior is filled with a copious, fleshy endosperm surround- 

 ing the embryo. The seeds are arillate in Eyania and Laetia, 

 and furnished with an arilloid membranous coat in Erythrosper- 

 mum. They are more or less compressed in Bixa and Oncoba. 

 Those of Aberia are densely covered with a villous tomentum. 

 The embryo is axile and straight or curved according to the 

 form of the seed, to which it conforms to a certain degree, being 

 curved in the curved seeds of Aphloia, and longitudinally 

 grooved in Bixa, apparently owing to the raphe being deeply 

 sunk in the side of the seed. This is best observed in trans- 

 verse section. The embryo is always comparatively large 

 and nearly equals the endosperm both in length and breadth, 

 but not in thickness, and the cotyledons are flat, and more or 

 less cordate. The seeds of Pangium edule are bluntly triangular 

 vertically, and in longitudinal section the embryo is also seen 

 to be of great size with bluntly triangular cotyledons, traversed 

 longitudinally by five to seven diverging nerves. They are 

 faintly notched or subcordate at the base ; and the radicle is 

 extremely short. 



Cochlospernmm Gossypium, DC. (fig. 190). 



Hypocotyl erect, stout, subfleshy, glabrous, pale green, about 



12-16 mm. above the soil. 



Cotyledons linear-oblong, obtuse or subacute, glabrous, petiolate, 



seven- to eleven-nerved from the base or near it, slightly unequal ; 



lamina of the larger one 

 about 4-7 cm. long, 1-05 

 cm. wide ; of the shorter 

 one 4-5 cm. long, and 1-05 

 cm. wide ; petioles chan- 

 nelled above, connate at 

 the base, slightly scurfy 

 with brown scales or 

 glands, 10-11 mm. long. 

 Stem erect, terete, 

 glandular - scurfy and 

 slightly pubescent, much 



thinner in the seedling stage than the hypocotyl ; 1st internode 



6 mm. long ; 2nd 10 mm. ; 3rd 8 mm., and the next two or three 



also short. 



FIG. 190. Cochlospermum Gossypium. 

 Half nat. size. 



