Mr. J. Miers on the Menispermacese. 5 



In the female flowers we generally find the same number and 

 disposition of floral envelopes as in the male; and there is some- 

 times a similar number of sterile stamens around the ovaria, 

 but in most instances they are altogether wanting. In the 

 centre of the flower the torus rises more or less in a cylindrical 

 form, to the sides of which the sterile stamens, when present, 

 are attached; they are generally free from one another, but 

 are more rarely attached at their base by a short ring that 

 surrounds the more elevated gynsecium. This latter, in some 

 few cases, bears on its summit only a single ovary ; but most 

 generally it carries three distinct ovaries, occasionally four, five, 

 or six, or rarely as many as twelve, arranged in a single whorl. 

 These ovaries are generally sessile, but ai*e sometimes borne each 

 upon a stipitate support, that lengthens considerably with the 

 growth of the fruit. The ovary is unilocular in every instance 

 that has fallen under my observation, and never contains more 

 than a single ovule — a character which forms a valid line of 

 distinction between this order and the Lardizabalacece, Schizan- 

 dracea, and Wmteracece. 



The growth of the ovary and the development of the ovule, 

 together with the changes produced in the structure and form 

 of the fruit, present excellent and constant characters, that have 

 not been sufficiently attended to. St. Hilaire was the first 

 botanist who devoted any consideration to the subject, when, in 

 describing a species of Cissampelos (PI. Us. tab. 35), he gave a 

 detailed account of this growth, from the period of the impreg- 

 nation of the ovule to the final perfection of the fruit. Accord- 

 ing to his view, the ovary, by its excentric growth, gradually 

 curves itself round in the form of a horseshoe, until the two 

 sides thus bent round touch one another, when they become 

 agglutinated together {se soudent) : it thus assumes an ovoid or 

 subglobular form, and the original apex, indicated by the style, 

 is thus approximated to the base, the two being separated by 

 the septum thus formed, which extends far into the cell, and 

 which is generated by the " deux portions rapprochees et soudees 

 du pericarpe." The cell, and consequently the seed, thus assume 

 a corresponding hippocrepical shape. 



This view, not altogether correct as far as regards Cissampelos^ 

 wholly fails to explain the changes attendant on the development 

 of the fruit in other cases. Although the ovule, in an early 

 stage, is simply anatropal and attached to the ventral face, at a 

 point somewhat above its middle from the summit, of a linear 

 placenta on the inner angle of the cell, there is always seen 

 upon the corresponding concave margin of the ovule, below the 

 point of its suspension, a thickened and somewhat curved rib, 

 which is probably the indication of the raphe and chalaza : the 



