PRIMULACE^E 187 



Anagallis arvensis, L. 



Hypocotyl erect, terete, glabrous, 5-8 mm. long, almost colour- 

 less, with occasionally a slight reddish tinge. 



Cotyledons ovate-lanceolate, obtuse, entire, glabrous, green with 

 brown spots beneath, indistinctly one-nerved ; petioles short, very 

 slightly flattened above. 



Stem erect, or procumbent in rich soils, quadrangular, herba- 

 ceous ; 1st internode 5-6 mm. long ; 2nd shorter. 



First leaves simple, entire, cauline, opposite, decussate, broadly 

 ovate, obtuse or subacute, glabrous, green with dark spots beneath, 

 trinerved at the base. 



MYRSINEJ1. 



Benth. et Hook. Gen. PI. ii. 639. 



Fruit and Seed. The ovoid or globose ovary is superior, 

 or inferior in Maesa, one-celled with few or numerous ovules 

 inserted on a free-central globose placenta or deeply immersed 

 in it, amphitropous or anatropous. The fruit is globular, dru- 

 paceous or baccate, with a pulpy exocarp and a crustaceous 

 endocarp, one- or few- very rarely many-seeded. The seed 

 is nearly always solitary and globose, conforming to the 

 interior of the cavity, often umbilicate at the base with a 

 shallow or deep cavity owing to a thickening or swelling of 

 the placenta the sides of which are prolonged into a cup-shaped 

 membrane surrounding the base of the seed. Much more 

 rarely the seeds are numerous and small or relatively large, 

 tumid, bluntly angled and obliquely affixed to the placenta. 

 The testa is membranous and closely adheres to the copious, 

 fleshy or horny, smooth or ruminated endosperm. The em- 

 bryo when normal is transverse to the placenta in all cases 

 where the seed is solitary; but where the seeds are more 

 numerous in a fruit, the embryo is more or less axile or 

 excentric, and cylindrical, curved or arcuate. The cotyledons 

 are small and of the same width as the radicle, which is 

 elongated and terete ; in some cases they are foliaceous. 



The fruits observed all belong to the genus Ardisia, 

 and are globose, drupaceous, and one-seeded. The seed is 



