284 OX SEEDLINGS 



celled, four-ovuled, sessile ; ovules erect, inserted at some distance 

 from the centre of the fleshy placentas which occupy all the hase 

 of the ovary, anatropous, the raphe running along the inner 

 angle and forming a stout ridge in the upper interior half of the 

 ovary ; radicle next the hilum but on the dorsal aspect. 



Fruit a capsule, globose, tipped by the persistent remains of the 

 style, one-celled, two- to four-seeded, pale brown, brittle, glabrous 

 externally, silky with adpressed pubescence internally. 



Seeds trigonous when four are matured, with the lateral faces 

 flat, or more or less shrunk or somewhat wrinkled, and the dorsal 

 aspect longitudinally and transversely convex or rounded, obtusely 

 and minutely tridentate at the base of the dorsal aspect, the radicle 

 close to the middle tooth containing the micropyle, nearly white, 

 ultimately brown, glabrous, albuminous ; hilum renifonn, on 

 the oblique basal scar with the convex side towards the inner 

 angle. 



When two seeds mature, even if in the different though un- 

 divided compartments of the ovary, they share the space and become 

 nearly or quite hemispheric. 



When one seed only is produced it becomes ovoid or subglobose 

 and variously but obtusely angled. 



Endosperm plentiful, of a clear jelly-like consistency and muci- 

 laginous when the seed is in a growing state and completely sur- 

 rounding the embryo. As the seed matures it diminishes, adapting 

 itself to the various wrinkles and folds of the embryo, at the same 

 time becoming hard and horny, but preserving a clear colour where 

 still thin and membranous. 



Embryo straight at first with flat cotyledons which ultimately 

 become very large and variously wrinkled, adapting themselves to 

 the internal construction of the seed. When the embryo is only 

 2 mm. long and T5 mm. broad, it is nearly, if not quite, straight and 

 flat ; the cotyledons are rotund, entire, and triiierved, and the whole 

 embryo is embedded in jelly- like endosperm and rests in an invagi- 

 tion of the micropyle, which increases in size with the embryo. 

 The cotyledons project beyond this and become at first concave 

 towards the inner angle of the seed ; they soon become much con- 

 cave and slightly emarginate, doubling sharply over the point of the 

 supporting process, and down behind it where the liquid endosperm 

 offers no resistance. The cotyledons up to this stage are green. 

 As they attain full size they become much wrinkled, and pale 

 yellowish or dirty white. They have previous to this ultimate stage 

 grown to the full length of the seed, and the shallow notch in the 

 cotyledons abuts against a ridge at the apex of the seed formed by 



