264 ON SEEDLINGS 



seeded, indehiscent nutlets, as in S. ramiflorum and S. fcetida 

 (fig. 217), or in many-seeded fruits the five carpels form as 

 many rays dehiscing by two valves, or in a follicular manner 

 along the ventral suture only. The fruit of S. ramiflorum 

 consists of five achenes or nuts, densely covered with stalked 

 and stellately-branching hairs. The seed is oblong, and con- 

 forms closely to the interior of the nutlet, which it entirely 

 fills. The testa is membranous and creamy yellow; while 

 the micropyle is superior and apical. The endosperm in the 

 mature seed is copious, fleshy, white, and almost separated into 

 two equal halves by the cotyledons ; but the halves are con- 

 nected by a collar encircling the short radicle. The embryo 

 is large, straight or nearly so, axile, and of a dirty yellowish- 

 white. The cotyledons are oblong, obtuse, rounded at the 

 apex, slightly auricled at the base, otherwise entire, equal in 

 length and breadth to the endosperm, except the small por- 

 tion occupied by the radicle, with their dorsal faces closely 

 applied to the endosperm, and traversed longitudinally by 

 three indistinct nerves and two other short lateral ones near 

 the base. The radicle is very short, stout, embedded between 

 the auricles of the cotyledons, projecting through the endosperm 

 with its tip, and together with the plumule forming a globular 

 mass. From this type S. fcetida (fig. 217) differs only in detail. 

 The nut is bluish-black and glabrous. The cotyledons are 

 oblong or obovate, slightly emarginate owing to a thickening 

 of the chalaza, and surround the plumule and radicle by their 

 bases, leaving only a small opening for the short radicle to 

 protrude ; five slightly branching nerves pass upwards from 

 their junction with the hypocotyl. The genus Tarrietia 

 agrees with Sterculia in having the endosperm divided by the 

 cotyledons. 



The fruit of Heritiera littoralis consists of one to five 

 obovoid, unequal-sided, shortly stipitate, brown, woody, one- 

 seeded indehiscent carpels or nuts, composed of a dense mass 

 of interlacing fibres, packed with brown cortical matter and 

 laterally compressed, diverging outwards and more nearly in 

 line with the dorsal than the ventral suture. Each nut is 

 about the size of a pigeon's egg. The seed is ovoid, conform- 

 ing to the ulterior of the carpel ; the testa is brown, thick, 



