484 



ON SEEDLINGS 



lanceolate, acuminate, suddenly narrowed at the base into a short 

 petiolule, but not articulated with the rachis, unequal ; middle one 

 longest and slightly the widest. 



No. 3. Alternate, similar to the first two but apparently on a 

 much smaller scale, and at the end of a very short internode. 



Jatropha Curcas, L. 



Ovary of three carpels, three-celled, three-ovuled ; ovules pen- 

 dulous, anatropous ; micropyle superior. 



Fruit a capsule, ovoid, blunt at both ends, tipped with the 

 persistent base of the style, with six shallow longitudinal furrows 

 (at least when dry) denoting the dorsal and ventral sutures of the 

 carpels, more or less reticulate, three-celled, three-seeded, falling 

 away in two-valved, one-seeded cocci ; endocarp hardened or woody. 



Seed large, oblong, 

 blunt at both ends, slightly 

 dorsally compressed, and 

 very obtusely subtrigonous, 

 glabrous, brown, shal- 

 lowly sculptured all over ; 

 testa crustaceous, generally 

 thickest on the ventral 

 aspect, and at each end ; 

 tegmen thicker, harder 

 and pale brown ; micropyle 

 nearly or quite superior; 

 hilum near the upper end 

 on the ventral aspect and 

 contiguous to the micro- 

 pyle ; raphe ventral ; cha- 

 laza inferior, large, and 

 thickened internally. 



Endosperm copious, 

 fleshy, white, nearly divided 

 longitudinally into halves 

 by the embryo. 



Embryo straight, large, 



nearly equal in length and breadth to the endosperm, colourless ; 

 cotyledons large, flat, oblong, obtuse, deeply cordate at the base, 

 palmately five-nerved and somewhat reticulate by branches from 

 the main nerves, adhering to the endosperm which shrinks when 

 dry, leaving a hollow space in the middle; radicle short, stout, 



