PRIMUL ACE.fi 177 



PRIMULACE^E. 



Benth. et Hook. Gen. PL ii. 628. 



Fruit and Seed. The ovary is superior or rarely more or 

 less inferior as in Sarnolus ; and consists of five or six 

 carpels cohering so as to form one cell. The ovules are 

 numerous or few, but never less than two and inserted upon 

 a free-central, sessile, or stalked placenta, on the surface of 

 which they are placed or are immersed in it, semianatropous 

 with a ventral attachment or rarely anatropous as in Hottonia. 

 The fruit is a capsule dehiscing by two to six valves (very 

 frequently five) with the valves entire or bifid, very rarely is it 

 circumscissile as in Anagallis, or indehiscent as in a few species 

 of Lysirnachia. The seeds are few or numerous, arranged on 

 the surface of the central placenta or immersed in it, peltate 

 or attached by the ventral face and very frequently depressed 

 and variously angled. The membranous testa is smooth, fur- 

 rowed or granular, sometimes winged and adnate to a copious 

 fleshy endosperm. The embryo is small, terete or cylindrical, 

 and lies embedded in the endosperm parallel or crosswise 

 to the hiluin, rarely pointing to it and often uncertain in 

 its direction. The cotyledons are blunt and very small, but 

 become foliaceous during germination. 



Seedlings. In the Primulaceae, three distinct types of 

 cotyledons were observed. The leading and most characteristic 

 type is ovate ; a few are spathulate or show some modifica- 

 tion of that form; and in Cyclamen we have a reniform, 

 foliaceotfs and solitary cotyledon. One of the most highly 

 developed forms is that of Lysirnachia ciliata (fig. 501), the 

 cotyledons of which are ovate, acute and greatly resemble 

 the first pair of leaves although smaller and with a less evident 

 venation. Those of Anagallis arvensis are lanceolate-ovate, 

 while the leaves from the first are broadly ovate, opposite, 

 decussate, glabrous, but marked with black spots beneath. A 

 considerable number of the species of Primula have ovate 

 cotyledons, including P. veris and P. denticulata. The first 

 leaf of the former is cordate, entire or slightly toothed, while 



