276 



THE SPECIES OF MYRISTICA 



than the females; and as a fact the latter are usually very scantily represented in 

 most collections. In the flowers of both sexes the perianth is single, coriaceous, more 

 or less globose or nrceolate or tubular; usually 3-toothed, but in some species 2- or even 

 4-toothed ; the activation of the teeth being always valvate. The anthers, which are in 

 shape either ovate or linear, have two parallel cells, and they are invariably collected on 

 a central column, which may be stalked or sessile, and to which they are attached in 

 one of two ways. In the majority of the species the column is cylindric or angled. 

 It may be not much longer than broad, or it may be much elongated ; but the 

 anthers are always attached to it by their backs, through their connectives, the edges 

 and, sometimes, the apices of the anther-cells being free. In some species the anthers 



also united to each other, as well as to the column. In the section Enema, 

 however, the column is cylindric below; but at its apex it expands into a flat, 

 concave or slightly convex, orbicular (or somewhat 3-cornered) disc, to the edges of 

 which disc the anthers are attached by their bases, either directly or by the intervention 

 of short filaments. In some species the connective of each anther is prolonged at the 

 apex into a short, free point ; in others the projecting connectives of all the anthers 

 of a flower are conjoined into a single conical appendage ; while, in a third set, the 

 connective is not prolonged at all. In all cases the dehiscence of the anther-cells is 

 longitudinal, and it is invariably extrorse, i.e., the pollen escapes outwards, or (in many 

 of the Enemas) downwards. In number, the anthers of the Asiatic species vary from 

 six to eighteen; but in one species (M. bivalvis) they number thirty, and in another 



are 





(M. Curtisii) forty-five. Many of the South American species have, however, only three 

 anthers, and these alternate with the lobes of the perianth. As will be understood 

 from the preceding account of the anthers, there is considerable diversity in their 

 arrangement. And these differences, together with the nature of the inflorescence in 

 which the male flowers are disposed, and the presence or absence of bracteoles, have 

 been taken as characters for the division of the genus into groups or sections. 



The female flowers are, in all the species known to me, fewer in number and 

 larger in size than the males. As a rule they present less variety than the males. 

 The perianth is more inflated than that of the male; it is sometimes campanulate 

 with a constricted mouth; it is also thicker in texture, and has shorter teeth than that 

 of the male. I have only in one species found any trace of staminodes in a female 

 flower. The ovary is single, usually sessile, more or less ovoid; it is invariably 



one-celled i with a single, basal, anatropous ovule. The style is either very short 

 or quite absent, and the stigma is flattish and slightly divided or lobed. The ripe fruit 

 has a pericarp which often tends to split up, when ripe, into two valves ; it is 

 often succulent and brightly coloured. The solitary seed is invariably covered, more 

 or less completely, by a usually laciniate, but sometimes entire, brightly coloured, 

 fleshy or membranous, often aromatic, arillus. The exact nature of this arillus has 

 been much discussed; some observers regarding it as an arillus proper, proceeding from 

 the funiculus at or just below the hilum; others, as an arillode originating around 

 the micropyle; while a third set believe it to originate from both hilum and 

 inicropyle. As in the seeds of Myristica the hilum and micropyle are approximated, 

 the third view is probably the right one. The testa of the seed is smooth and hard; 

 the albumen copious, ruminate, and often aromatic. The embryo is small, basilar and 

 straight ; the , cotyledons being sub-f oliaceous, divaricate, and flat or rugulose-plaited. 

 The radicle is short, cylindric, and inferior. 



