8 Mr. J. Miers on the Menispermacese. 



Sciadotania this emanation becomes elongated in an extraor- 

 dinary manner : in this case the number of ovaries is constantly 

 nine, uniserially sessile upon the summit of a columnar gynse- 

 cium ; in the course of its growth a process is generated be- 

 neath each ovary, which becomes elongated in the form of a long 

 pedicel on which the fruit is articulated ; so that they bear the 

 appearance of an umbel of nine distinct flowers, each bearing 

 a single seed. This was the inference I drew when I first saw 

 the plant * ; but I was soon afterwards convinced of the true 

 nature of this development, on obtaining a specimen where in 

 some of the flowers eight of the ovaries remained sessile and 

 abortive upon the gynsecium, while only a single fruit was car- 

 ried up by the pedicel-like expansion of nearly three times the 

 length of the seed. This curious development, which some 

 years afterwards was noticed by Mr. Bentham f, is evidently the 

 growth of the gynsecium, not of the ovary, which is articulated 

 on its summit, and leaves a scar when it falls off", while the 

 pedunculiform expansion remains solidly attached to the gy- 

 nsecium. 



The structure of the endocarp is deserving of some considera- 

 tion. With few exceptions, it becomes hardened into a firm and 

 often osseous nut, more seldom into a chartaceous putamen, 

 which is sometimes thin and horny. In all the LeptogonecB and 

 PlatygonecE, where the cell is curved round a central condylus, 

 the outer rim of the putamen is transversely marked with several 

 broad and deep crenelures ; and as the shell is of uniform thick- 

 ness, the seed becomes indented with corresponding impressions. 

 In the HeterocliniecB, where the form of the nut is usually oval 

 or orbicular, the external surface, though sometimes smooth, is 

 frequently covered with tubercular or irregular cristate projec- 

 tions ; and sometimes, upon the internal and ventral surface of 

 the cell, across each side, numerous more or less elevated cris- 

 tate plates project, which enter into corresponding fissures of 

 the albumen, much after the manner seen in the seeds of many 

 of the Anonacea. In Odontocarya and Jateorhiza, genera of the 

 HeterocliniecB, and in Hcematocarpus among the Pachygonece, the 

 putamen is covered with an extremely dense tomentum, formed 

 of innumerable fine simple hairs or fibres which are imbedded in 

 the pulpy mesocarp. In Anomospermum, the drupes of which I 

 examined in the living state, the mesocarp consists of a number 

 of fleshy masses, each about a line in diameter, which, by mu- 

 tual pressure, are somewhat angular ; they adhere together with 

 some tenacity, and can only be removed from the putamen by 

 force. A number of cancellated furrows, filled with ligneous 



♦ Ann. Nat. Hist. ser. 2, vii. 43. f Joum. Linn. Soc. v. Suppl. p. 61. 



