MAGN0LIACE2E. 149 



within its coats an abundant fleshy albumen, liaving towards its 

 apex a small embryo with its radicle superior (figs. 198, 199'). 



In another plant of this genus found in Japan, which has been 

 called /. rc/lf/io-s/nii- (figs. 195-199), we observe certain tolerably 

 well marked differences. The leaves of the perianth, about twenty 

 in number, are all of the same colour, yellow or greenish white, 

 and change insensibly in form and size as they ascend on the 

 receptacle.^ Above these are a score of stamens inserted on a 

 spiral with very close turns. ^ The filaments are short and fleshy, 

 but not gibbous as in /. parvijlorum, and their anthers, far more 

 elongated, have two adnate introrse cells,' above which the con- 

 nective projects. The carpels, usually eight in number,^ form a 

 sort of crown, in the centre of which the apex of the receptacle 

 projects. On this the ovaries are inserted very obliquely : each 

 is surmounted by a horned style, and tlie whole of the internal angle 

 of ovary and style is traversed by a vertical groove, whose lips are 

 covered with stigmatic papilla?/ In each carpel is an erect, incom- 

 pletely anatropous ovule. ^ The fruit of this species, which when 

 very aromatic constitutes the Star-anise {I. anisatum) of commerce' 



^ These figures refer to the Star-anise of com- between the corolhi and the pieces of the andro- 

 merce. Mieks also has given an analysis of the ceuin. One or two of the outermost stameus may- 

 seeds in his Contributions (1. t. 27). The ana- be half-petaloid. 



tropy is not complete. The umbilicus is like a ^ The cells are marginal, and at a variable 



large depressed cicatrix, to the outside of which is distance from one another in the outer stameus. 



a little micropylar beak with an obtuse tip. There In the inner ones they come to touch by the inner 



are three seed coats. The outermost is smooth and edge. 



shining. It tapers abruptly, and is, as it were, ^ This number is by far the commonest. As 



bevelled off at the base of the beak just described. it is very often found in the ripe fruit also, we 



The middle coat is thick and brownish. The see that the abortion of the carpels frequently 



innermost is whitish and membranous. At the spoken of does not occur. In this matter it is 



base of the raphe is seen a brownish elliptical probable that some American species has been 



chalazal stain. The embryo is very minute com- confounded with I. anisatum. There are often 



pared to the enormous tleshy albumen, of which six or seven carpels in the gyua;ceum, all fertile ; 



it occupies a small cavity near the micropyle. and sometimes nine or ten. 



The turbinate mass of the embryo is supported '' These papilla) are less prominent and nume- 



by a slender suspensor. The cotyledons, but little rous as we approach the insertion of the carpels, 



marked, obtuse, and separated from one another, but some are yet found on the ovary itself. 

 look directly upwards. ^ The exostome is at some distance from the 



2 SiEB. & Zucc, Fl. Ja/pon., i. 5, 1. 1. — Spach, hilum, and completely surrounded by the priminc 



oj). cif., 440. — Mieks, op. cit., 143, n. 2. — Bot. giving passage to the sort of little truncated neck 



Mag., t. 3965. — /. anisatum Thg., Fl. Japan., formed by the endostome. 



235. This plant, together with /. anisatum L. ^ The only dift'erences which can be established 



(Spec, 661), the section Badiana of Spach. To between the fruit of I. anisatum of commerce and 



us (Adansonia, viii. 1), as to Miquel {Ann. Mus. that of I. reUgiosum are as follows : — 1. The sur- 



lAigd. Bat.,\i. 257), it is only another form of face; the fruits of J. reii^iosuw are often less rugose 



the /. anisatum of Linx.etts. than in I. anisatum. 2. The form of the apex of 



•* Hence there is no distinction of calyx and the carpels ; those of /. reUgiosum usually possess 



corolla. Here also we find every transition be- a more acute and somewhat curved beak. 3. The 



tween the outer and the inner leaves. scent of the ripe fruit, which is a little less aro- 



* It often happens that there are transitions matic and more resinous in I. anisatum. We have 



