326 MR. J. MIERS ON THE HIPPOCRATEACEÆ OF SOUTH AMERICA. 
by a common transverse suture. On the contrary, in Celastracee they are invariably 
introrse, with two collateral cells opening longitudinally. 
4. The disk is one of the chief points, and invariably a discriminating mark of differ- 
ence. In Hippocrateacee it presents itself as a distinct free wall of separation between 
the petals and stamens, and assumes forms quite unknown in the other family; on the 
other hand, in Celastracee it is more like an expansion of the torus, intervening between 
the ovary and stamens, which are thus always exterior to it, the ovary being often half 
imbedded in its substance ; the petals, together with the stamens, are generally persistent 
upon the disk, all remaining at the base of the ripe fruit. I am not aware of a parallel 
case in Celastracee. 
5. The ovary in Hippocrateacee, though small and greatly depressed, and placed 
within the disk, is never immersed in or confluent with it; for even in Hippocratea, 
where it is situated within a somewhat shallow cavity on the summit of a tall conical 
disk, it is always free to its base; on the other hand, in Celastracee the ovary is most 
frequently half imbedded in the substance of a broad fleshy disk, and agglutinated 
to it. 
6. The- form of the fruit in Hippocrateacee, and the mode of its development, 
especially when capsular, find no parallel in Celastracee. In Hippocratea, and in four 
other genera, owing to the absolute suppression or atrophy of the axis of the ovary, its 
walls alone expand, when three distinct carpels are developed from a single ovary, 
growing to à length of fifty (sometimes above a hundred) times its length, while the axis, 
surmounted by the style, remains unchanged. Under these circumstances, each cell pro- 
duces a dehiscent bivalved capsule with many winged seeds, or an indehiscent capsule 
with few large nuciform seeds. We have nothing like this in Celastracee, where the 
axis of the ovary always extends itself commensurately with its walls, producing a 
comparatively small 2-3—4-ceiled capsule, which bursts loculicidally, with the dissepiments 
persisting in the middle of the valves. In the two families, where the fruit is drupa- 
ceous, the structural development of the seeds is as unlike as possible. 
7. The seeds in the two families present differences quite irreconcilable. In Hippo- 
crateaceæ they are always deficient of albumen, except in the extremely doubtful case 
of Calypso; on the other hand, in Celastracee I believe it to be universally present, 
usually in considerable quantity *. In the capsular fruits of the Hippocrateacee the 
* Three exceptions to this rule are given in Gen. Plant. p. 358, viz. in the Brazilian species of Maytenus, in 
Hartogia, and in Kokoona ; but none of these appear to me tenable. 
The absence of albumen in Maytenus rests solely on the authority of Reisseck, who was unquestionably mistaken 
in this respect. I still preserve the notes and analytical drawings of the seeds of several species, which I made in 
Brazil ; and these have been confirmed lately by observation of seeds of other species from that country. In the fresh 
state the very thin foliaceous cotyledons are of a greenish colour, and easily detached from the white, almost corneous 
albumen, which is thick upon each face, but extremely thin round the margins of the enclosed cotyledons ; so that 
when dried, by the easy rupture of this thin portion, the rest of the albumen readily splits into two plano-convex 
plates, the cotyledons, like pellicles, adhering to the inner faces of the albumen. 
artogia the evidence seems equally clear. The earliest authority for the assumed absence of albumen rests 
with Endlicher (Genera, p. 5678), who does not seem to have examined the seeds; his character was founded, as he 
shows, upon evidence derived from Thunberg, Linnæus, and DeCandolle; but neither of these, the only preceding 
