446 ON SEEDLINGS 



with the lateral ones giving off short branches on their outer sides ; 

 lamina 8-9 mm. long, 6*5 mm. wide ; petiole slender, channelled 

 above, 2-5 mm. long. 



Stem erect, terete, slender, glabrous, ultimately climbing ; 1st 

 internode undeveloped ; 2nd 1'2-1'S cm. long. 



Leaves simple, cauline, alternate except the first pair, entire, 

 glabrous, petiolate, exstipulate ; petiole slender, subterete, channelled 

 above. 



Nos. 1 and 2. Opposite, suborbicular, minutely emarginate, rather 

 truncate at the base, petiolate, much smaller than the cotyledons 

 and resembling them, but having more the venation of a foliage 

 leaf. 



Nos. 3-5. Beniform or broadly reniform, entire, trinerved, with 

 all three nerves branching rather copiously, reticulate, glabrous. 



Benth. et Hook. Gen. PI. iii. 125. 



Fruit and Seed. The ovary is superior, sessile or rarely 

 stipitate, consisting of three to four many-ovuled carpels, dis- 

 tinct or united at the base, or is one-celled and one-ovuled. 

 The ovule is solitary and erect, or there are several ascend- 

 ing and orthotropous. The fruit is small and capsular in 

 genera having numerous carpels, or it breaks up into three to 

 four cocci or follicles ; in genera where it is one-ovuled it is 

 baccate and indehiscent, with a succulent or thin and almost 

 dry pericarp. The seed or seeds according to the number 

 present are globose, ovoid or oblong. The testa is membranous 

 or thinly fleshy, rarely coriaceous. Both perisperm and endo- 

 sperm are present and farinaceous. The former is copious 

 and occupies the greater part of the seed, is often snowy- white 

 and in many cases hardened at the periphery. The endosperm 

 forms a small mass embedded in the perisperm close to the 

 superior micropyle, distant from the hilum, and encloses the 

 minute embryo. The cotyledons are short, often not very 

 distinct ; and the radicle is superior. A few exceptional cases 

 occur as in Saururus and Lactoris where the fruit breaks up 

 into cocci. The fruit is one-celled and opens at the top in 



