MR. JOHN MIERS ON THE GENUS CRESCENTIA. 161 



longitudinal, almost obsoletely grooved lines, and punctured over its whole surface with 

 numerous small immersed hollow dots ; it is quite indehiscent. Internally it is filled 

 with a fleshy uniform mass, without the appearance of any division; this pulpy mass 

 adheres to the inner surface by means of several soft layers that run parallel with it, 

 so that, on dividing the shell transversely, the upper moiety is ea-ily detached from it, 

 when it is seen to be quite smooth inside, without any projection or cicatrix to indicate 

 the presence of any parietal placentation. The pulpy mass is not so easily separated 

 from the lower half of the shell by the same method; for I found that it adhered firmly 

 to the bottom; but, within the membranous layers that serve to attaeli the pulpy mass to 

 the shell, a number of strong longitudinal cords were seen proceeding from the base, 

 tapering upwards into fine threads, which scarcely reach the apex, apparently in a single 

 series and about thirty or forty in number. "When these cords are torn away from the 

 pulpy mass, the latter is soon detached ; and we then perceive that the cords all emanate 

 from a prominent central knob in the base of the cell, over the point of insertion of the 

 peduncle, radiating in all directions in about four superposed series, each cord being 1 or 

 1^ line broad at its origin, tapering upwards into a thread, and consisting of a solid 

 bundle of woody fibres sending out in all directions branches containing nourishing 

 vessels ; these soon anastomose everywhere, becoming imbedded in the innumerable 

 fleshy laminae radiating from the cords, all closely interwoven and agglutinated together, 

 so as to form one uniform fleshy mass, without the trace of any division, as we find 

 upon cutting the mass into sections. In the substance of these laminae some hundreds of 

 seeds are imbedded, each in a corresponding cell, polished inside, formed simply by the se- 

 paration of the membranes ; each seed is quite free from the cell, except at its minute hilar 

 point, where it is connected with a thread of spiral vessels emanating from the vascular 



network diffused throughout the fleshy membranes : the seeds do not appear to lie in 

 any determinate direction. Erom these facts it is evident that the fruit is completely 

 unilocular, without the vestige of a dissepiment, and that the internal pulpy mass 

 consists of innumerable agglutinated fleshy emanations from the placenta ry cords that 

 spring from the base: it is also manifest that there is no trace of an arillus around the seeds. 

 The seed is obcordate, 4 lines long, nearly 3 lines broad, much flattened, with a 

 thickened margin, marked on one face by the prominent line of the raphe, which runs 

 from the apical sinus to a small hilum in its pointed basal extremity : the outer coat, or 

 testa, is hard, coriaceous, finely rugose in radiating lines, is of a brown colour, and closely 

 invests an inner membranaceous integument, which is of a smoky -white colour, having a 

 small chalaza in the sinus of its cordate summit, and at the base is prolonged into a 

 funicle-like thread, which terminates in the hilum. The embryo filling its cavity is with- 

 out albumen, and consists of two white fleshy flattened cotyledons, which are transversely 

 oval, with a shallow cordate sinus in the summit, and are deeply notched at the lower 

 rounded extremity, where they are connected together by a small flattened quadrate 

 radicle pointing towards the hilum, that fills the notch but does not project beyond it. 

 Thus it is seen that in the texture of the integuments of the seed of Crescentia, and in 

 the form of its exalbuminous embryo, there is much resemblance to the seeds of many of 

 the Jjignomacea. 



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