432 Mr. J. Miers on the Genus Rhabdia. 



turned backwards, each margin havinga single ovule attached 

 to it. The fruit is a succulent drupe containing four nucules, 

 evidently at first combined together in pairs, and afterwards 

 free ; upon one margin only of each nucule, always on the 

 contiguous side of each pair, there is seen a fungous longitu- 

 dinal line, which penetrates the cell through an open corre- 

 sponding slit ; and upon this fungous line the single seed is 

 attached, at a small spot halfway between the middle and the 

 summit : this fungous line seems to belong to the original 

 placenta seen in the ovary. The seed is long, pointed at both 

 extremities, and on its outer integument a line of raphe is seen 

 running from the point of its attachment to a small chalaza at 

 the base ; its embryo, enveloped in solid albumen, has a small 

 superior radicle and two oblong foliaceous cotyledons, with 

 their face turned to the centre of the fruit. One important 

 part of this structure is the axile column, or, as some would 

 call it, the gynobase, although it is in the form of a spindle- 

 shaped vesicular membranaceous tube, originating at its base 

 in the extremely small torus, and terminating at its summit in 

 continuity with the persistent style, where it also unites with 

 the pericarpial covering of the fruit ; it has four distinct longi- 

 tudinal cords or bundles of spiral threads terminating in the 

 style, some of which adhere to the fungous lines seen upon the 

 nucules ; this tube touches the smooth ventral faces of the 

 nuts, without absolutely adhering to them ; there is no trace 

 of any basal gynobasic attachment of the nuts, which do not 

 even touch the torus. 



It has been already noticed {suprhj p. 123) that this struc- 

 ture cannot be reconciled either with the Heliotropiacece or 

 with Ehretiacem under the conditions hitherto supposed to 

 exist. The reality of the organization above described is, 

 however, unquestionable, being clearly illustrated by Von 

 Martins in the work referred to, in like manner depicted by 

 Dr. Wight (Icon. 1385) and by Sir Wm. Hooker (Icon. 823). 

 In searching for a parallel structure, we naturally come upon 

 the Hydrophyllacece^ with which Rhabdia agrees in having a 

 deeply 5-cleft calyx, a campanular corolla with a 5-lobed 

 border, five equal subexserted stamens affixed near the bottom 

 of the tube of the corolla, 2-lobed anthers, a simple style 

 with a 2-lobed stigma, a superior 1-celled ovary with a parietal 

 placentation, as before explained, and albuminous seeds en- 

 closing an embryo with a superior radicle : but here the ana- 

 logy ceases ; for it differs in its suffruticose virgate growth, the 

 stems crowded with simple, almost sessile leaves, the want of 

 scales in the tube of the corolla, and in the totally diffbrcnt 

 structure of the fruit. 



