RUBIACE^. 



341 



ventral line and liberating the nam^ow and elongate polyspermous 

 placenta. The seeds are ascending, imbricate, subpeltate, flat and 



Cinchona officinalis. 



Fig. 340. Fructiferous branch (^). 



furnished with a wide marginal wing, a dilatation of the coat, the 

 elHptic or oblong ^ cavity of which encloses a flattened, fleshy, often 



1 The wing is unequally elliptical, thin, 

 translucent, finely and irregularly laciniate at 

 the margin with delicate ciliate divisions. The 

 central portion occupied by the albumen, much 

 compressed, is sometimes called the nucleus of 

 the seed. The seed is attached near the middle 

 of this. The placenta is smooth within, tra- 



versed lengthwise by a median suture. Ex- 

 ternally it has unequal depressions in which 

 the seeds are lodged near the middle of which 

 is a small circular surface of insertion. The 

 embryo is half or a little more the length of 

 the albumen and erect. 



