MYRSINE^E 195 



protruding into the ovary, where it causes a cavity at the base of 

 the seed, and thinning away towards the sides forms a cup round the 

 same ; it becomes brown and membranous when mature. 



Seed globose, immersed in the basal placenta, and closely filling 

 the cavity of the ovary, depressed or rather indented at the base by 

 the prominent thickened placenta ; testa extremely thin and mem- 

 branous, pale brown. 



Endosperm copious, subtransparent, fleshy when mature, horny 

 when dry. 



Embryo straight, cylindrical, transverse to the seed and parallel 

 with the placenta, nearly equalling the width of the seed, colourless ; 

 cotyledons minute, ovate, obtuse, lying with their backs to the basal 

 placenta and their tips just inside the periphery of the seed, and 

 embedded in the endosperm ; radicle nearly constituting the whole 

 embryo, cylindrical, stout, obtuse, abutting against the testa on one 

 side of the seed and even causing a slight prominence there. 



EAKLY DEVELOPMENT OF COTYLEDONS. 



During germination the seeds, if but lightly buried, are carried 

 up on the tip of the seedling ; but if moderately deep in the soil, the 

 hypocotyl rises with a curve and finally pulls itself out of the seed 

 and becomes erect. 



The cotyledons are now oblong, obtuse, concave and closely ap- 

 plied to each other by their edges or more or less distinctly convolute 

 one over the other, densely glandular, sessile or subsessile, becoming 

 shortly but distinctly petiolate, and greatly enlarged by the twenty- 

 third day after germination. 



They then unfold or unroll, becoming flat, elliptic-ovate, obtuse 

 or subapiculate, obsoletely dentate at the margin, alternately and 

 irregularly penninerved, reticulate with the principal nerves running 

 into the minute teeth by a straight or zigzag course, or often send- 

 ing strong lateral branches into them. 



Seedling (fig. 506). 



Hypocotyl 8-4 cm. long. 



Cotyledons ultimately elliptic, obtuse, emarginate, coriaceous, 

 evergreen, glabrous, persisting for about a year, petiolate, about 

 2-8 cm. long and 1-6 crn. wide. 



The midrib is strong, traversing the leaf and tapering upwards 

 till near the apical sinus, where it bifurcates, a branch passing 

 on each side of the sinus also giving off numerous lateral, ascending, 

 slightly wavy veins, furnished with branches uniting with one ano- 

 ther towards the margin, and forming a series of large reticulations. 



o 2 



