TERXSTRCEMIACE.E 237 



leathery or almost woody, or a loculicidal or septicidal capsule, 

 the septa often breaking away, leaving a central columella. 



The seeds are solitary or more often several or numerous, 

 and attached to axile placentas, which are usually stout and 

 spongy or fleshy ; and they also vary exceedingly in size, some 

 being very large as in Ternstroemia, Caryocar, Pyrenaria, 

 Pelliciera, Camellia, Kieimeyera, and Caraipa. The woody or 

 bony character of the testa is very marked in most of these 

 large seeds ; and their variability in shape and in the direc- 

 tion of the longer axis is well seen in Camellia reticulata. 

 Some seeds are more or less winged, as in Pentaphylax, 

 Stuartia, Schima, Gordonia, Laplacea, Kieimeyera, and Marila, 

 in the last of which the wing is firnbriate ; while others are 

 fleshy, and probably adapted for dispersion by animals. The 

 endosperm is generally scanty or absent, and this may vary even 

 in the same genus, as in Camellia, for instance, where endo- 

 sperm is said to be absent. In Camellia theifera it is, 

 indeed, altogether wanting, as well as in Pyrenaria, Gor- 

 donia, Laplacea, Caraipa, Pelliciera, Marila, and others. The 

 testa is so thin in Pelliciera as to be almost evanescent. 

 Endosperm is, however, very copious in Actinidia, Saurauja, 

 and Stachyurus. The embryo varies exceedingly ; being short 

 and straight, curved, replicate, inflexed, horseshoe-shaped, or 

 spiral, and the cotyledons and radicle also vary in their pro- 

 portionate lengths, the complications which they undergo, 

 depending greatly upon the shape and other characters of the 

 seed. 



The embryo is straight and axile with very short cotyledons 

 in Actinidia, similar or slightly incurved in Saurauja, and 

 straight, nearly equalling the endosperm, in Stachyurus, with 

 elliptic cotyledons ; also in Stuartia, where the cotyledons are 

 oval ; in Laplacea, where they are oblong and flat ; and in 

 Microsemma, where they are ovate and flat. Linear and slender, 

 straight seeds (to which the embryo conforms) occur in Bon- 

 netia, Archytsea, Mahurea, and Marila, but the cotyledons are 

 generally broad and the radicle short. The seeds are without 

 endosperm or almost so, and the embryo is slightly curved in 

 the Marcgraviese. In the tribe Gordonieae, to which the 

 Camellia belongs, there is considerable variation in the form of 



