210 ON SEEDLINGS 



OLEACE.E. 



Benth. et Hook. Gen. PL ii. 672. 



Fruit and Seed. The ovary is superior, of two carpels, 

 syncarpous and two-celled. The ovules are usually geminate 

 in each cell, rarely solitary or four to eight, attached to the base 

 or the apex of the dissepiment and amphitropous or more often 

 anatropous, with a superior micropyle when inserted at the apex 

 of the septa. The fruit is capsular, dehiscing loculicidally by 

 two valves, or baccate or drupaceous. The seeds vary from two 

 to four, but are usually solitary by abortion in each cell, and 

 erect or pendulous. The testa is usually membranous, rarely 

 slightly thickened. Endosperm is usually abundant, and 

 fleshy, hardened or somewhat horny, or oily ; rarely is it 

 entirely absent as in Schrebera or in some species of Linociera. 

 The embryo is straight and axile with flat and ovate or 

 oblong cotyledons when endosperm is present, and thick and 

 fleshy ones when the latter is absent. The radicle is generally 

 short and sometimes surrounded by the cotyledons, rarely 

 elongated, and superior or inferior according to the insertion 

 of the seed. A few exceptions to the above characters are met 

 with in some species. A tricarpellary ovary sometimes occurs 

 in Fontanesia and Nyctanthes. Endosperm is wanting as 

 above mentioned in Schrebera, and the cotyledons are plano- 

 convex but much twisted. The radicle is inferior and con- 

 siderably elongated in Myxopyrum. The seed is pendulous 

 and anatropous in Syringa vulgaris, and solitary by abortion in 

 a capsular fruit. The embryo nearly equals the endosperm in 

 length and has oblong flat cotyledons about twice the length 

 of the radicle. The embryo is much shorter, and in fact 

 scarcely half the length of the endosperm in the mature seed 

 of Fraxinus excelsior (fig. 511), and the cotyledons are oblong 

 or oblong-lanceolate, obtuse or entire with numerous alternate, 

 incurved nerves uniting with one another within the margin. 

 This latter character is best seen in the embryo (fig. 511) which 

 is preparing for germination and has almost filled the seed. 

 The latter is very much flattened laterally and fills the cavity 



