304 MR. A. S. HORNE ON THE STRUCTURE AND 
of Davidia is dealt with by Sertorius* in his “ Beitrige zur Kenntnis der Anatomie 
der Cornacez "in 1893. In 1891, D. Oliver f, with Henry's fruit at his disposal, briefly 
described the fruit-bearing twig. 
A number of seeds brought over by Wilson were germinated. The curious method 
of germination was described and figured by W. Botting Hemsley f. Grafting 
experiments carried out by Messrs. James Veitch and Sons upon members of the 
Cornacez and Hamamelidacex proved unsuccessful. The systematic position has been 
discussed by Harms$ in his paper entitled “ Die Gattungen der Cornaceen." This 
author places Davidia and Nyssa among the Cornacex in the groups Davidioideze and 
Nyssioidez respectively. Davidia is placed among the Hamamelidacex, near Fother- 
gilla, by J. D. Hooker in the English translation of Le Maout and Decaisne's * Traité 
Général de Botanique' (p. 410), which was published in 1873; but it is referred to the 
Cornaceæ in Bentham and Hooker's ‘Genera Plantarum.’ Quite recently Wangerin į 
has suggested a probable affinity with the Euphorbiaceze. 
The material used in this research is of the form of Davidia described by Baillon. 
It was obtained by Wilson from the trees he had seen in 1904, when collecting for 
Messrs. Veitch. It consisted of what appeared to be a very complete series from very 
young inflorescences to fully developed fruits. The material proved somewhat deceptive 
and somewhat analogous to inflorescences of Symphoricarpus, Juss., picked in autumn, 
which bear apparently all stages from flower to fruit, although the greater part of the 
inflorescence is generally sterile. Serial sections were made of a number of ovaries, 
but only a single doubtful case of fertilization was observed. The young fruits yielded 
very meagre information with regard to post-fertilization changes within the embryo- 
sac. Sufficient information was obtained, however, to establish the morphological 
character of the tissue containing reserve food which invests the germinating embryo. 
It was found exceedingly difficult to extract embryos from the mature fruit owing to 
the excessive hardness of the endocarp. 
The paper is divided into the following sections :— 
fun 
. Vascular structure of the seedling and general anatomy. 
Morphology of the inflorescence and flower. 
Vascular structure of the inflorescence. 
Vascular structure of the ovary. 
. Discussion of the nature of the inflorescence and flower. 
Structure of the ovule and seed. 
. Discussion of affinities and summary. 
TID CB go bw 
* Sertorius in Bull. Herb. Boiss. i. (1893) p. 469 &e. 
T D. Oliver in Hook. Ic. Pl. t. 1961. 
i Hemsley in Journ. Linn. Soc., Bot. xxxv. (1903) p. 556. 
$ Harms in Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Gesellsch. xv. (1897) pp. 21-29. 
|| Wangerin in Eng. Bot. Jahrb. xxxviii. (1906), Beibl. No. 86, pp. 1-88. 
