330 



ON SEEDLINGS 



cotyledons are very thick and plano-convex in Ochna, Gomphia, 

 and Elvasia, with an exceedingly short radicle. Both the seed 

 and the embryo are annular in Brakenridgea, while the coty- 

 ledons are linear. Where endosperm is wanting, as in the 

 Ochnese, the embryo conforms in outline to that of the seed ; 

 and when the latter is solitary it is large, and conforms to the 

 cavity of the carpels. In albu- 

 minous seeds the embryo where 

 known is generally slender. 



A good instance of the 

 exalbuminous type is Ochna 

 Kirkii. 



Seedlings. The cotyledons 

 of Ochna Kirkii (fig. 236) are 

 thick, fleshy, subterranean, and 

 represent the exalbuminous 

 type. Here it will be noted 

 that the first two leaves are 

 reduced to scales. 



Ochna Kirkii, Oliv. 

 Fruit of three to ten drupes 

 arranged around a central, large, 

 elevated torus or disk, with a 

 gynobasic style, best seen in the 

 young condition ; drupes shortly 

 oblong, slightly laterally com- 

 pressed, fixed to the torus by an 



oblique lateral scar near the base, and diverging outwards, glabrous 

 and shining black when mature, and falling away separately ; 

 walls of drupe comparatively tbin with very little pulp ; endocarp 

 subcrustaceous, dull greenish, and reticulated internally wben 

 fresh. 



Seed solitary in each cell, large, and conforming to tbe interior 

 of tbe drupe, wbicb it closely occupies ; testa tbin, membranous, 

 brown ; bilum and micropyle contiguous, close to or at tbe lateral 

 scar of the drupe, where it is fixed to the axis. 



Seedling (fig. 236). 



Hypocotyl short or none, subterranean. 



Cotyledons fleshy, plano-convex, filling tbe seed, whicb fills the 



FIG. 236. 

 Ochna Kirkii. Nat. size. 



