288 ON SEEDLINGS 



and even or angled. Winged seeds are met with in Hebe- 

 petalum and some species of Ixonanthes, while those of Phyllo- 

 cosmus and occasionally of Ixonanthes are furnished with a 

 lacerated, mitriform aril. Normally the embryo is axile, that 

 is, it lies in the centre of the endosperm, but there is an 

 exception in Ixonanthes, where it is lateral. Hugonia and 

 Eoucheria are exceptional in their embryo being sometimes 

 more or less incurved ; in the mature seeds of Anisadenia 

 and Linum it is green. 



Linum may be taken as a type of those with a dry capsular 

 fruit. In the early stage of the ovary it is five-celled, with 

 two ovules in each of slightly different ages and slightly 

 superposed. The ovules at first are represented by small 

 papillae, and as the integuments are developed and they 

 become anatropous, a false partition begins to grow towards 

 the interior from the inner face of the carpel and separates 

 the ovules immediately they have become anatropous. Endo- 

 sperm is wanting in the mature seed, and the cotyledons 

 of the embryo are elliptic, conforming in shape to that of 

 the seed. The drupaceous type is represented by Hugonia 

 Mystax. The fruit is globose, fleshy externally, with a bony 

 endocarp, spuriously ten-celled with one or two seeds in 

 each true cell. As it ripens the interior becomes pulpy, 

 and the dissepiments obliterated. The laterally flattened 

 seeds differ from those of Linum in containing endosperm. 

 The embryo almost equals the latter in length, and is pale 

 yellow, and slightly incurved ; the cotyledons are oblong, flat, 

 foliaceous, thin, and alternately penninerved. The seeds of 

 Linum when moistened emit a copious mucilage, which at- 

 taches them to the soil, and probably serves to facilitate the 

 exit of the young plant. 



Cotyledons. Just as there is very little variation of any 

 importance amongst the seeds, so with the cotyledons of those 

 seedlings coming under my notice. They are broadly oval or 

 roundly obovate, trinerved, suddenly narrowed into a very 

 short petiole. Those of Linum perenne are oval, rather opaque, 

 with an obscure venation, about 5-25 mm. long, including the 

 petiole, and 3-25 mm. wide. They are longer and several 

 times wider than the primary leaves. Those of L. campanu- 



