328 ON SEEDLINGS 



GESNEEACE.E. 



Benth. et Hook. Gen. PL ii. 990. 



Fruit and Seed. The ovary is inferior, half or wholly 

 superior and one-celled with two parietal placentas which are 

 bifid and slender or strong, and consist each of two broad 

 revolute plates approaching one another in the centre of the 

 cell, imperfectly dividing it into two or four locelli ; rarely do 

 they cohere at the base or beyond the middle of the cell as in 

 Monophyllsea and Loxophyllum. The ovules are generally 

 very numerous, and densely cover the placentas on all sides 

 or at their margins only ; they are also minute and anatropous. 

 The fruit is capsular, rarely fleshy, and in the Gesnereae 

 dehisces by two valves between the persistent calyx-lobes, or 

 rarely at a dorsal slit at the base as in the genus Monopyle. 

 In the tribe Cyrtandreae it is indehiscent, or bursts trans- 

 versely, sometimes by two valves along the middle of the 

 carpels, or at the placentas. In other cases it is four-valved 

 with the valves bearing both divisions of the placentas on their 

 middle or a half of the placentas on their margins ; the valves 

 rarely become entirely separated from the placentas. The 

 seeds are very numerous and minute, pendulous or horizontal 

 and ovoid, oblong, fusiform or linear with a striated or reticu- 

 late testa drawn out into a short point or a long thread-like 

 process at either end. Endosperm is more rarely scanty and 

 fleshy, copious or absent. The embryo is straight and nearly 

 as long as the endosperm when that is present, with short 

 cotyledons and a radicle pointing to the hilum. 



Seedlings. The cotyledons of seedlings in this Order are 

 always very small unless one or both become foliaceous by 

 intercalary growth. Those of Sinningia speciosa are small, 

 rotund and never attain any great size. Gesnera macrantha 

 has broadly ovate or triangular cotyledons, glandular on both 

 surfaces and showing a midrib only. The hypocotyl com- 

 mences to thicken soon after germination and forms a fleshy, 

 globular and persistent rootstock, as does also Sinningia 

 speciosa. The first pair of leaves in Gesnera macrantha are 



