ORR—POLYEMBRYONY IN SARCOCOCCA RUSCIFOLIA, STAPF. 23 
From the figure, it will be seen that the position of these 
immature embryos in the disintegrating tissue at the apical end 
of the seed is somewhat suggestive of their genesis in the nucellus 
of the ovule at an earlier period of growth. This derivation of 
embryos from sporophytic tissue outside the embryo-sac is by no 
means an uncommon feature of certain forms of polyembryony, 
and has been observed in both Monocotyledons and Dicotyledons 
by various investigators. 
In the Euphorbiaceae, for example, it has been established 
by the researches of Strasburger* on Coelebogyne ilicifolia (Al- 
chornea), and by the later work of Hegelmaier+ on Euphorbia 
dulcis, that embryos produced by these two polyembryonic species 
have their origin in the nucellus. Bearing in mind the close re- 
lationship existing between the Euphorbiaceae and Buxaceae, it 
might be reasonably inferred that the undifferentiated embryos 
in the seed of Sarcococca have arisen from the same ovular tissue. 
Whether the fully-developed embryos shown in fig. 1 originated 
in like manner, or in some other way, is a debatable point at this 
stage. Absolute proof regarding the morphological origin of 
both the mature and immature embryos in the seed of Sarcococca 
ruscifolia can only be attained by a study (which is now being 
prosecuted) of the whole process of embryo-building throughout 
the entire period of maturation. All else is pure speculation. 
* EF. Strasburger in Zeitschr. Naturwiss. Jena, xii ia P. 659. 
+ F. Hegelmaier in Ber, Deut. Bot. Gesell., xxi (1903), 
