﻿160 



MR. J. MIERS ON THE LECYTHIDACE^. 



introflected into the cavity of the cells, leaving the axis hollow : this circumstaiice, 

 he adds, alone suffices to make an ordinal distinction between MyrtacCiB and LecytU- 

 dacece. ' The structure of the ovary in Couroupita is correctly described, though wrongly 

 interpreted by him. It appears to me to differ little from the ordinary axile pla- 

 centation, the only divergence arising from the hollow style, a hollow continued to tlie 

 point where the placentae branch off near the summit into the cavities of the ceUs, 

 leaving the axile column solid below that point for the greater portion of its length. 

 Dr. Bero- ii""ures the ovary in Couroupita surinamensls as being superior'; this appears 

 to me a mistake, as in all the species I have seen it is certainly inferior. The fruit has 

 been well described by Poiteau and others ; it is a heavy globular pyxidium, like a 

 cannon-baU, showing two zonary lines, one near the summit, denoting the small oper- 

 culum, the lower one marking the vestiges of the sepals ; the operculum does not fall 

 off, as 'is usual in the LecytliidacecB, but is drawn inwards by the contraction of the 

 central column attached to it. The pericarp, \-l in. thick, consists of 3 layers-a thinnish 

 hard ligneous epicarp, an inner thin osseous endocarp, and a thicker intermediate suhfleshy 

 mssoca'rp. There is some descrepancy in the details of different authors regarding the 

 structure ; but all agree that the operculum does not fall off. Aublet states ' that the epi- 

 carp is ligneous and 2 lines thick— that the endocarp is thin, hard, and brittle— that the 

 mesocarp between them is thicker, succulent, and fibrous,^ which at maturity becomes 

 deliquescent. He adds that in order to preserve the fruit it is necessary to bore two 

 holes on opposite sides, to allow the fluid mesocarp to escape, when the endocarp he- 

 comes detached and free. Poiteau corroborates the same facts ^ adding that the osseous 

 endocarp is 1 line thick, the epicarp rather thin, though firm and crustaceous, and that, 

 after the escape of the deliquescent mesocarp, the detached endocarp rolls about freely 

 within. Aublet gives a figure of the endocarpic lining thus detached, which is quite 

 spherical, rounded and smooth at the summit, without any indication of the continuity 

 of the axile column with the stigma, or of the endocarp with the summit— a circumstance 

 which admits of great doubt : it is more probable that, owing to the extreme tenuity of 

 the brittle endocarp at its summit, it easily breaks off there when violently shaken, and 

 thus becomes detached as described. Dr. Berg figures a section of the fruit of another 

 species from Surinam, and corroborates the facts stated by Aublet and Poiteau; but, from 

 the incompleteness of the drawing, no light is thrown upon the doubt I have stated. 

 The endocarp is 6-7-celled, divided by dissepiments, which with the placenta, as m 

 Gustavia, are resolved into a copious pulp ; this, exposed to the air as it escapes throug 

 the opercular opening, becomes purple or dark red, emittin^ 



aO to 40 seeds are enveloped in the pulp, each suspended, as in Gustavia, by a thic 

 funicle of half its length. These are broadly ovate, less than half an inch in diamete 

 the outer tunic being somewhat coriaceous, and with the funicl6 clothed by veiv , 

 articulated hairs; this testa splits along one side round the large micropyle, 

 allowing the nucleus to escape ; the embryo, covered by a thin integument, is ex 

 buminous, globular, consisting of a terete radicle and 2 fleshy foliaceous cotyledons, 



odour; from 



) 



( 



Flor 



» Aublet, PI. Guian. ii. pp. 708, 711, tab. 282. ' Mem. Mus. xiii. p. 152, tab. 7 (6) 



