92 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. X. 



the base, though finally the funicle supporting it is inserted a little 

 higher. 



Chalaza.— Superior. 



MrcROPYLE. — -Introrse, inferior near funicle. 



FRUIT.— An ash-coloured nut, and as such dry and indehiscent ; 

 kidney-shaped ; usually about an inch long, sometimes a little bit 

 longer ; a quarter of an inch broad at the hilum when fully developed ; 

 somewhat compressed ; marked at the hilum with umbilicus, and the 

 cicatrix of the style. Mesocarp soft, corky, lacunose and oleo-resinous. 

 The epicarp, or pericarp, as Sir William O'Shaughnessy describes it, is 

 " coriaceous," and smooth (K. R. K.) ; and not " woody *' as Baillon 



'• The fruit is termed " Nucumentaceous " by Baillon. It is seated on 

 a succulent obovoid accrescent receptacle formed from the enlarged disk 

 and top of the peduncle of the fecundated hermaphrodite flower. It is 

 wrongly called pyriform. It is anything but pyriform, in my humble 

 opinion. So far as I know, it is more obovoid than pyriform. This 

 obovoid receptacle develops to the length of from 2 to 4 inches, being 

 sometimes two inches at its broadest part. The peduncle is narrow, 

 cylindrical, and rather hard before the fecundation of the flower ; after 

 fecundation it thickens, becomes succulent, and assumes an obovoid 

 form. This thickened fleshy peduncle is ordinarily known as the 

 Kaju fruit, though the real fruit, botanically speaking, is the kidney- 

 shaped body of the termination of the fleshy peduncle. This fleshy 

 peduncle is not unoften of an irregularly oval form. O'Shaughnessy 

 in his Bengal Dispensatory says it is " pval." 



SEED. — Kidney-shaped, ascending, corresponding to the shape of 

 the pericarp. 



Testa. — Membranous but crisp, and easily removable ; of mottled 

 reddish-brown colour outside, and deep crimson inside. It is of an 

 astringent aromatic taste. Observe that Hooker says that the " testa 

 is adherent," but it is not so in reality. It is separable by a " resi- 

 nous fracture " with the merest touch or crush between the fingers, 

 exposing to view the cream-white or milk-white cotyledons. The 

 testa under such circumstances cannot be in any way said to be 

 " adherent." 



