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MR. J. MIERS ON THE LECYTHIDACE^ 



echinated inside by pointed linear appendages, which are generally bare of stamens. The 

 ovary, as in CJiytroma, is semiinferior, its vertex being raised, conical, longitudinally 

 striated, and gradually narrowed into an obtuse style ; it differs, however, from that genus 

 in being constantly bilocular ; it has few ovules, which are always uniserial, erect, and 

 sessile in the base of the cells. The pyxidium, as in CJiytroma, is comparatively small, 

 and of a subglobular or depressed turbinate form ; the coriaceous pericarp is at first 

 2-celled ; but its membranaceous dissepiment, without the trace of an axile column, soon 

 becomes evanescent ; and it then appears unilocular, like a hollow cup. Berg figures a 

 species ^ (which I have not seen) where the dissepiment is as thick as the pericarp, and is 

 persistent. The upper or opercular zone is nearly equal in diameter to the lower or 

 calycary zone : the convex operculum, which soon falls off, is hollow and conchoid within, 

 with scarcely a trace of the dissepiment, and, as in CJiytroma, is furnished near its 

 margin with a pendent velarium, which descends within the mouth of the pericarp, from 

 which at maturity it becomes detached ; the latter contains 4, sometimes 6 seeds, which 

 fill its cavity ; these are ovoid, erect, and sessile, attached to the bottom of the cup by a 

 broad hilum ; they shrink much in drying, and differ in appearance greatly from those 

 of CJiytroma, having a very dark testa, tolerably thick and coriaceous, ecostate, scrobicu- 

 larly rugulose all over, marked by irregular grooved lines, which, ascending from the 

 hilum, indicate the main branches of an embedded raphe, which is again subdivided into 

 innumerable threads, distributed through the entu-e fabric : within the testa are two 

 distinct submembranaceous integuments, the outer one the size of and slightly clinging to 

 the testa, the inner one adhering to the other on the ventral face, but free from it on the 

 dorsal side, where it is much shorter and narrower, owing to its insinuation between the 

 folds of the very corrugated surface of the embryo on that side : between these two integu- 

 ments we perceive, in the dried state, a quantity of black pulverulent matter in clots, 

 appearing as if deposited from a gelatinous fluid that had existed between the two integu- 

 ments : this structure was constant in all the seeds I have examined : the embryo, much 

 contracted by drying, is of a dark green colour, smooth on the ventral face, with a sharp 

 scutiform margin, pulvinated and deeply corrugated on the dorsal side ; this embryo, 

 when cut across in different directions, appears homogeneous in substance, as m thy- 

 troma, with a thick external exorhiza, and an internal neorhiza subtruncated at its sum- 

 mit, obtuse towards the base \ Here, then, we find a large amount of differential cha- 

 racters ; the absence of a long terete style, a semisuperior and 2-celled ovary, with only 

 2 or 3 ovules in each cell, which are erect (not suspended by funicles), a much smaller 

 and thinner pyxidium, always 2-celled, without any columella, a thin conchoid oper- 



With- 



^ Mart. Flor. Bras. I c. p. 494, tab, 73. fig. ] . 



' I regret that wHle in Brazil I omitted to examine criticaUjr the seeds oi Eschweilera in their fresh state. ^ 

 out success I have since repeatedly solicited my friends in Eio de Janeiro to send me the fruits preserved ^° 1^ 

 T have examined numerous seeds in the dry state, with the results above detailed; and, in addition, I ni y 

 remark that I have invariably observed in the furrows of their surface, in some species a white, in others a r 

 pulverulent efflorescence, indicating perhaps the existence of a fugitive thin cellular deposit, analogous to tne 

 envelope seen by Dr. Spruce in the seeds of Chytroma. I recommend this circumstance to the attention o 

 observers^ 



