﻿MR. J. MIERS ON THE LECYTHIDACE^. 199 



300 of them daily, yielding them about 2 alquieres of the nuts. The kernels of these 

 nuts, broken in a similar manner, are subjected to pressure, when they yield an oil 

 greatly esteemed for domestic purposes and for export, each pound of the kernels fur- 

 nishing 9 ounces of oil, valued at 2 shillings per pound. This oil, according to Martins, 

 consists, per cent., of 74 parts of elseine, and 26 of stearine. The finely laminated 

 inner bark of the trunks is also a valuable article of commerce, especially adapted for 

 the caulking of ships and barges, being worth about 18 shillings per cwt. 



The question here naturally arises, how do the seeds germinate and strike root, con- 

 fined as they are in an inextricable prison ? Por it is manifest they cannot find an exit 

 through the opercular opening, and they cannot escape by any other means than by the 

 rotting of the thick pericarp on moist ground ; and it would probably require three years' 

 exposure to the sun and moisture before so thick a shell could decay sufficiently to allow 

 of the liberation of the seeds, and then perhaps another year's exposure before the thick 



1 



testa of the seeds could rot sufficiently to allow the embryo to germinate. This shows an 

 extraordinary power of vitality in the embryo, which would seem to remain four or five 



years in a dormant state. Oily seeds are generally supposed to ferment and decay soon ; 



but that perhaps is where the oil-cells are contained in albumen; here, however, we find 



T 



a reverse condition. I have been told that when the embryo of Bertliollctia has been 

 extricated, and planted under the most favourable circumstances, it takes a whole year 

 before it begins to germinate. Is this inertness due to the large amount of stearine in 

 the oil-cells, which preserves it from decay ? 



4. Lecythis. (Plate XXXIV. a.) 



The many points of structure hitherto unknown to botanists, among the several plants 

 referred to Lecijthis, render it necessary to define the genus anew, and to separate from 

 it all those species where, in the ovary, the ovules are erect, unsupported by funicles, and 

 where in the fruit the operculum is not attached to a central columella, where tlie 

 seeds are bitter (not edible), are not suspended in pulp by a large fleshy funicle or 

 strophioie, but are always dry, erect, and attached to the base of the fruit by a large 

 hilum. The species so distinguished from Lecythis proper are here described under the 

 distinct genera Chytroma, Uschweilera, and Jugastrim. The androphorum in Lecyihia 

 is similar in structure to that of Bertholletia ; that is to say, the imbricated appendages 

 within the hood are always bare of stamens, terminating in flexible points, all centring 

 around the style, where they form a kind of brush, the probable function of which is to 

 coUect and distribute the pollen derived from the fertile stamens placed over the cpigy- 

 nous disk. We find in Chytroma and Eschweilera an androphorum constructed as in 

 BerfhoUetla; but not so in Jugastrim, where the appendages within the head boar 

 fertile stamens, as in Couroupita and sometimes in Lecythis. These conditions form 

 differential features by which Lecythis may at all times be easily distinguished from 

 other genera of the family : its diagnosis may now be summed up in the following 



manner 



2d2 



