HAMAMELIDE^E 519 



HAMAMELIDE.E. 



Benth. et Hook. Gen. PL i. 664. 



Fruit and Seed. Ovary of two carpels forming a more 

 or less perfectly two-celled fruit, more or less inferior, seldom 

 quite superior. 



The ovules are numerous, few or solitary, pendulous, 

 anatropous, and fixed to axile placentas in one or more series, 

 with a superior micropyle and ventral raphe. The woody 

 capsule is bilobed at the apex and dehisces by two bifid 

 valves to the middle or base of the fruit. Sometimes the 

 exocarp separates from the horny endocarp which contains 

 the seeds. Where these are numerous they are imbricated, 

 angled, compressed and winged ; but when solitary in each 

 cell they are oblong with a bony or crustaceous testa. A 

 small or moderately thick fleshy layer of endosperm is pre- 

 sent embedding the large embryo which is straight with 

 foliaceous cotyledons, and a terete radicle. The latter is 

 equal to, shorter, or longer than the flat cotyledons in different 

 species. 



Winged seeds containing the large embryo characteristic 

 of this Order are represented by Ehodoleia Championi (fig. 334). 

 The cotyledons in this case, as in Hamamelis, are subcordate 

 at the base. 



Seedlings. The size and shape of the cotyledons after 

 germination in those cases where the embryo is of propor- 

 tionately large size while still in the seed, seem to alter less 

 than those with a small embryo embedded in endosperm. An 

 example of this is met with in Bucklandia populnea (fig. 335) , 

 which has oblong, entire, subemarginate petiolate cotyledons. 

 They are oblong and flat while still in the seed. 



Ehodoleia Championi, Hook. (fig. 334). 



Pistil syncarpous, inferior ; ovary of two carpels, two-celled, 

 many-ovuled ; ovules pendulous or horizontal ; micropyle superior 

 or horizontal. 



Fruit a capsule, cuspidate, glabrous, woody, two-celled, many- 

 seeded, dehiscing by two bifid valves. 



Seeds imbricate in two rows, much compressed, variously shaped 



