200 ON SEEDLINGS 



PITTOSPORE^E. 



Benth. et Hook. Gen. PI. i. 130. 



Fruit and Seed. The ovary is free, syncarpous, consisting 

 of two carpels, more rarely of three to five, and is one-celled with 

 parietal placentas, or the placentas are sometimes so much 

 intruded as to form septa. The ovules are numerous, hori- 

 zontal, anatropous. The fruit is dry and dehisces loculicidally, 

 while the valves sometimes break away from the dissepiments, 

 or baccate and indehiscent. The seeds are numerous, rarely 

 few or solitary in the cells, and filled with a copious hard endo- 

 sperm. The testa is thin and smooth, rarely rugose-muricate 

 and often black. The embryo is very minute and embedded 

 in the endosperm close to the hilum. 



The embryo in Pittosporum undulatum is a minute 

 nodular mass with hardly discernible cotyledons situated or 

 embedded in the endosperm at the base of the reniform seed 

 near a notch or depression at the hilum. As far as form is 

 concerned it cannot be much influenced by the shape of the 

 seed before germination. The seeds of Hymenosporum are 

 flattened, reniform, and girt with a membranous wing. 



Cotyledons. As in the case of the seed-leaves in other 

 Orders having a copious endosperm, whether the embryo is 

 large or small while yet in the seed, the cotyledons after germ- 

 ination attain a considerable size. They vary from linear to 

 linear-lanceolate, lanceolate, or oblanceolate. The broader 

 ones are characteristic of Pittosporum, the type of the Order. 

 In P. phillyrseoides (fig. 192) they are linear-lanceolate, acute, 

 sessile or narrowed to a very short petiole, hairy on the midrib 

 beneath, the midrib only being discernible. They are rather 

 persistent and with the exception of the venation resemble 

 very closely the first six leaves. 



The other two species observed are very exceptional and 

 somewhat remarkable in character. The cotyledons of P. 

 crassifolium are four in number, oblanceolate, narrowed 

 to a short petiole, mucronate, rather unequal and apparently 

 consisting of two divided to the base, pubescent on both 



