456 ON SEEDLINGS 



Hakea acicularis, B. Er. 



Ovary shortly stipitate, of one carpel, one-celled, three- to four- 

 ovuled in specimens examined ; ovules parietal on the ventral 

 suture, erect or ascending, anatropous ; micropyle inferior. 



Fruit a follicle, broadly ovoid, generally if not always laterally 

 constricted near the apex, more or less deeply furrowed along the 

 ventral suture, surface very uneven with protuberances and cavities, 

 glabrous, the rough epidermis often reticulated with cracks and 

 sometimes falling off in laminae, dehiscing when mature along both 

 sutures, exposing one or generally two seeds, and showing the walls 

 of the fruit to be very thick and bony, with a layer of white, clean, 

 close-grained wood all along the dorsal suture, which splits with a 

 nearly even, clean fracture. This layer of wood causes the fruit to 

 be of very unequal thickness, the dorsal wall being much the 

 thicker. 



Seeds when geminate, semiobovoid, very rough, tuberculated and 

 gibbous on one side, flat or slightly concave on that towards the 

 other seed, glabrous, black, obliquely winged along the ventral edge 

 and round the apex where it is produced sometimes to the length of 

 1-5 cm. and 1 cm. in width, and narrowed to an obtuse point, 

 thin, membranous and perforated or reticulated, deep brown, almost 

 black ; hilum and micropyle basal at the ventral suture of the 

 follicle, contiguous ; raphe and chalaza indeterminable in the mature 

 seed. 



Endosperm absent. 



Embryo very large, filling the seed and conforming to it in 

 shape, straight, colourless, rather fleshy ; cotyledons obovate, broadly 

 rounded at the apex, rather deeply auricled at the base, otherwise 

 entire, unequal in thickness, one being flat or slightly concave on 

 the side next the other seed, while the other next the side of the 

 follicle is convex or gibbous to correspond to the cavity in the 

 follicle, and somewhat depressed into little holes or cavities ; radicle 

 very short, turbinate, obtuse, scarcely protruding beyond the 

 auricles of the cotyledons and pointing into the narrow base of 

 the seed. 



Seedling (fig. 631). 



Hypocotyl erect, terete, stout, glabrous, crimson or deep dull 

 red, 2-3-2-8 cm. long. 



Cotyledons obovate-rotund ; apex entire, acutely auricled at the 

 base, thick, fleshy, glabrous, subsessile, deep green above, paler be- 

 neath, faintly five-nerved on the under side but venation otherwise 

 indiscernible, often slightly unequal with about 1 mm. difference in 



