MYRISTICAGEJE. 



493 



also, the female flowers only possess a gynseceum within the perianth 

 (figs. 302, 303). This is gamosepalous in the females, with three 

 valvate teeth reflexed on an.th.esis ; it is a little better developed 

 than in the males. The gynseceum is free superior, formed of a 

 conical ovary, tapering above and traversed by a longitudinal groove 

 down the placentary edge. The two lips of this groove become 

 thickened towards the top, and are everted and covered with stig- 

 matic papilla). The ovary contains only a single cell, with a sub- 



Myristica fragrans. 



basilar placenta bearing a solitary suberect anatropous ovule ; the 

 micropyle looks downwards, away from the grooved side of the 

 ovary. 1 The fruit (fig. 298) is a berry often pear-shaped, opening 

 lengthwise when ripe, 2 to free a large ascending seed. This is sur- 

 rounded by a fleshy coloured aril, more or less laciniate and rising 

 to a variable distance between the pericarp and seed, well known 

 under the name of mace (Fr., maris ; figs. 305, 30G 3 ). The seed-coats 



1 It has two coats. The nucleus is imme- 

 diately enveloped in a bottle-shaped secundine 

 with a thick neck traversed by a slender canal ; 

 its truncate mouth does not protrude through 

 the exostome. This last, placed some way 

 above the hilum, is circular or elliptical, with 

 thin edges (see Adansonia, v. 17S). 



2 It opens from above downwards, along the 

 dorsal and ventral sutures, so that it finally 

 forms two distinct valves. 



3 The much discussed nature and origin of 

 this aril have been the subject of many works ; 



it is one of the most contested points in botanv. 

 The older botanists confined themselves to 

 stating that mace was an arillary product of 

 the nutmeg-seed. It was Planciion who, in 

 1844, in his Mnnoire sur le.i rrais et fanx 

 arilles (33), modified the hitherto received 

 opinions on the subject, and placed mace in his 

 category of false arils; a view which he has re- 

 cently reproduced (in Ann. 8c. Nat., ser. I, 

 v. 4), and which has been fully adopted by 

 A. De Candolle (in Ann. Sc. Nat., s6r. -I. iv. 

 20). Decaisne & Lemaout (Trait. <>',',;. ./,■ 



