﻿V 



-|^g^ MR. J. MIERS ON THE LECYTHIDACE^. 



ing is somewliat soft, but in drying becomes so hard tliat it is difficult to break it without 

 injuring the nucleus, which tightly fills it ; this nucleus, covered by a very thin integu- 

 ment, often marked by a small chalaza at its lower extremity, is an amygdaloid, exalbu- 

 minous embryo, of an oblong form, obtuse at both extremities, consisting, as in JBertJio. 

 letia, almost entirely of a gigantic radicle, showing an obsolete mammillary point at the 

 upper or hilar extremity, and presenting at the lower end 4 minute decussately imbricated 

 teeth, which are cotyledons, so smoothed by great pressure as to escape notice ; they are 

 more distinctly seen in a longitudinal section, where a rounded nipple (plumula) is seen 

 beneath the cotyledons ; and continuous with it we perceive the conferruminated line of 

 junction between the exorhiza and neorhiza of the radicle, running parallel with the 

 periphery of the nucleus. The germination of this seed takes place as I have described 

 it in JBertlioletia ; the plumular extremity swells, and protrudes itself between the coty- 

 ledons, which it forces aside, and extends so as to form the ascending stem of a new 

 plant, furnished with scale-like leaflets, while the opposite end of the neorhiza, bursts 

 through the thin pellicle of the exorhiza, to form the descending root. Lindley states 

 that the Lecythidacece are distinguished from JRUzophoracece by the seeds having no 

 power to germinate in the seed-vessel ^; but I have figured in Plate XXXIY, a a seed of 

 LecytUs in a germinating state, which I found within a fruit, and which completely 

 confirms the structure above indicated. It is essential here to correct another error of 

 Martins, supported by Dr. Berg, where it is afiirmed that the seeds of LecytUs are 

 partly covered by a soft, fleshy, lobed or lacinulated arlllus^; but I feel assured, by 

 actual observation in its live state, that no such arillus exists there, as my specimens, 

 preserved in alcohol, evidently show. The appearance to which Martins here refers is 

 more probably accounted for by the small quantity of pulpy matter due to the dis- 

 integration and softening of the dissepiments, which occur only at a late period, in the 



extremely ripe state of the fruit. 



Chytroma (Plate XXXIV, b) is a new genus ^ founded on several species necessarily 

 separated from Lecythis. The plants composing it resemble that genus in general habit 

 and inflorescence ; the flowers have similar sepals and petals ; the basal ring of the andro- 



phorum is rather broad, with an elevated margin, and is covered inside with very 



an 



in 



crowded, short staminiferous appendages, while the ligular portion terminates m a 

 inverted hemispherical hood, densely echinated within by imbricated appendages, as 

 Lecythis ; but these are mostly sterile. The ovary is very different, as it wants the long 

 style of that genus ; it is half superior ; and its vertex, instead of being concave, rises 

 considerably in a semioval or cupola-shape, surmounted by a very short, conical, obtuse 

 style ; although 4i-celled, it has no central column or prominent placentae, which are 

 needed, because its few ovules, without funicles, are attached at the base of the eel s, 

 and erect : these are important distinctions. The pyxidium is much smaller than m 

 Lecythis, and of thinner consistence ; it has the two zones universal in the family ; 

 operculum, without a columella attached to it, is concave inside, with a cruciform n ge 



not 



Kin 



» Mart. n. Bras. 7. c p- 481 'mi a 



dnot 



called 



