98 ON SEEDLINGS 



and a terminal, larger and oblanceolate one, decurrent with a narrow 

 margin nearly or quite to the base. 



In seedlings with opposite leaves the first pair (as shown in fig. 

 456) are spathulate, obtuse, and slightly serrate near the apex. 



The second pair are oblanceolate, serrate near the apex. 



The third pair are oblong-oblanceolate, incise and rather obtusely 

 serrate, gradually narrowed into long slender petioles, channelled on 

 the upper side. 



The fourth pair are similar, but have an oblong, obtuse, entire 

 lateral segment near the base. 



COMPOSITE. 



Benth. et Hook. Gen. PL ii. 163. 



Fruit and Seed. The ovary is inferior and syncarpous, 

 consisting of two carpels, as appears from the two divisions of 

 the style, but it is one- celled and contains a solitary, basal, 

 erect, anatropous ovule with an inferior micropyle. The fruit 

 is an achene, dry, rarely fleshy, crowned with an exceedingly 

 varied persistent pappus or calyx in different genera, or some- 

 times the pappus is entirely absent. The solitary seed is erect 

 and straight or curved in conformity with the size and shape 

 of the cavity of the achene. The testa is membranous, 

 rarely thickened and generally free from, but sometimes ad- 

 herent to, the walls of the ovary. No endosperm is present ; 

 and the embryo occupies the whole interior of the seed to 

 which it conforms. The cotyledons are semiterete or flattened 

 or rarely slightly convolute, and although frequently more or 

 less curved in conformity with the achene, they are seldom 

 unequal in length, as occurs for instance in Coreopsis 

 Atkinsoniana. The radicle seems always to be short and 

 inferior. 



Exceptional cases occur in Balbisia where the cotyledons 

 are conduplicate, in some species of Robinsonia ; and in some 

 species of Gymnolomia, Sclerocarpus, Baltimora, and possibly 

 in a few other genera where they are concave or channelled 



