368 OX SEEDLINGS 



endocarp. Normally, the whole fruit or the endocarp alone 

 is indehiscent at maturity, and two- to four-celled, or the 

 fruit breaks up into one- to two- celled lignified pieces, or four 

 rarely eight to ten one-celled pieces. The seeds are always in 

 separate cavities, fixed laterally to the placentas and erect, or 

 pendulous, oblong, obovoid or subglobose. The testa is mostly 

 membranous except in Avicennia. A fleshy endosperm is 

 present in the tribes Stilbeae and Chloanthese, but in all other 

 cases it is very scanty or entirely absent. The embryo is 

 straight and equals the length of the endosperm, or fills the 

 whole seed where endosperm is wanting. The cotyledons are 

 flat or thickened, quite free to the base or very rarely amalga- 

 mated for great part of their length into one piece. The radicle 

 is generally very short and always inferior except in Phryma 

 which contains a single species only, the ovule and seed of 

 which are very anomalous. 



Subcentral placentas occur in Avicennia as well as in 

 members of the tribes Symphoremeae and Caryopterideae. 

 Spurious septa are absent in the fruits of Espadsea. A fleshy, 

 oily embryo with its cotyledons united to the middle occurs in 

 Oxera, Amasonia and Symphorema. The embryo in Avicennia 

 is naked with large plaited cotyledons. 



The ovules of Clerodendron Kaempferi are erect and 

 anatropous with the micropyle inferior. The fruit breaks up 

 at maturity into four drupe-like pieces, each containing a 

 solitary oblong seed. The cotyledons are fleshy, plano-convex 

 and fill the entire cavity of the seed to which they con- 

 form ; they are, however, slightly auricled at the base in 

 order to accommodate the minute, globular radicle. 



Seedlings. The cotyledons are all of simple types, and 

 although five more or less distinct forms were observed, 

 they may all be described as modifications of one another, 

 dependent upon the size, and relative length and breadth 

 of the seed. The simplest form is that seen in Vitex trifolia 

 (fig. 585) which has small, oblong, obtuse cotyledons with- 

 out apparent venation. The cotyledons of Verbena officinalis 

 (fig. 584) are also small, but ovate, obtuse, with a distinct 

 midrib and a few alternate, very faint lateral nerves. The 

 petioles are slightly connate at the base. Lippia juncea in the 



