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II. On the Ovulum of Santalum album. By William Griffith, Esq., 

 Assistant Surgeon in the Madras Medical Service. Communicated by 

 Richard Horsman Solly, Esq., F.R.S. 8f L.S. 



Read April 5th, 1836. 



The following observations were made at the Botanic Garden, Calcutta, in 

 the early part of July, 1835. 



The ovarium as well as the fruit of this genus corresponds with the struc- 

 ture laid down by Mr. Brown as one of the principal distinguishing marks of 

 Santalacece, of which order I presume this genus is the type. 



I allude to the central free placenta, bearing towards its apex a definite 

 number of pendulous ovula. Yet Roxburgh has mistaken the structure en- 

 tirely, and has evidently described the placenta together with the ovula, which 

 he did not see, for the ovulum. This author, in his Flora Indica, vol. i. p. 443, 

 describes the ovulum as "Germ, semi-superum, one-celled, containing one 

 couical seed attached to the bottom of the cell." This mistake is perpetuated 

 in the Botanical Magazine, new series, t. 3235, in which Roxburgh's descrip- 

 tion is quoted, and said to be faithful. The error of Jussieu with regard to 

 the ovulum of Santalacece, first pointed out by Mr. Brown in his Prodromus 

 Florae Novce Hollandia;, and subsequently in the Appendix to Captain Tuckey's 

 Expedition to Congo, p. 453, might have partly originated from an examina- 

 tion of Santalum, in which the ovula from their situation and direction may 

 very easily be overlooked. 



The placenta in this species is conical, rather obtuse in the young flowers, 

 but prolonged considerably in those that are matured. Its apex corresponds 

 at this period to the termination of the canal, occupying the centre of the 

 style, but not opening between the stigmata in the fully developed flowers. 

 The ovula are attached near the base, and not towards the apex, as in the 

 other genera of this family. Mr, Brown's statement in Captain Flinders's 



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