198 ON SEEDLINGS 



but readily separable, and in germination swell up so as to 

 burst the woody testa in halves. 



In Butyrospermum Parkii the ovary consists of eight to ten 

 carpels with as many cells, each of which contains one ovule. 

 The fruit is one- or few-seeded by abortion. The fleshy coty- 

 ledons are plano-convex and inseparable from one another, 

 forming a mass conforming to the seed, which is variable in 

 outline, ovoid, oblong-ovoid, or almost globose, with an oblong 

 or elliptic hilum broadest at the upper end. The radicle is 

 short and scarcely protruded from between the cotyledons. 



Seedlings. There are two leading types in this Order 

 according as the cotyledons are aerial or subterranean. The 

 cotyledons vary in shape in both cases in conformity with the 

 seed in which they were developed. Those of Sideroxylon 

 tomentosum are broadly ovate, rounded at the base, obtuse at 

 the apex, coriaceous, with an incurved penninerved venation 

 similar to that of the leaves, and very persistent. They 

 probably endure as long as the first leaves, seeing that they 

 were still in perfect health a year and a half after germi- 

 nation. The cotyledons of Mimusops Balata are oblong-ovate, 

 obscurely penninerved, coriaceous and also very persistent. 

 The first four leaves are obovate-lanceolate. 



The seedling of Eostellaria abyssinica is much smaller 

 than either of the foregoing, with a finely pubescent hypocotyl. 

 The cotyledons are suborbicular, emarginate, and faintly tri- 

 nerved. The primary leaves are oval, entire, penninerved 

 and opposite. 



A strikingly different type is represented by an unnamed 

 species of Lucuma (fig. 507). The cotyledons are oblong, 

 plano-convex, or slightly concave on the upper surface, very 

 fleshy and narrowed to a short petiole which is connate and 

 forms an annulus around the axis. They are subterranean 

 or partly so, but split the testa into halves and spread out 

 horizontally, or one is directed upwards and the other down- 

 wards. When the upper surface is exposed to the light, it deve- 

 lops chlorophyll and becomes green. The extreme hairiness of 

 the young stem and lanceolate-elliptic penninerved leaves in 

 the seedling stage at least is very noticeable. The seedling of 

 Lucuma mammosa is very similar to the last in all the 



