Mr. Bentham's Account of two new Genera allied to Olacineae, 675 



another in the cell ; the placenta adheres to the side of the cavity next to the 

 excentrical style. In Pogopetalum the ovules are placed as in Apodytes, but 

 there are three cells, not radiating from the centre of the ovary, but diverging 

 from the side next to the excentrical styie. 



In Ximenia, Schaepjia, and several species of Ola<c the ovules taper into a 

 long point, which before fecundation is curled upwards in Ximenia. In 

 Heisteria they are long and slightly thickened at the extremity. In other 

 species of Olax they are ovate. In Opilia and Cansjera they are very mi- 

 nute, and look like a hooked point to the placenta. In Apodytes, Leretia 

 and Pogopetalum they are short and broad, and remarkably cellular in their 

 texture. 



The fruit (which I have only seen ripe in Heisteria, Olax, Schcepfia, Cansjera 

 and Apodytes, and unripe in Pogopetalum, but which has been described from 

 ripe specimens also in Ximenia, Heisteria, Opilia and Gomphandra, and from 

 unripe ones in Icacina) is a drupe with a thin, fleshy, or sometimes nearly dry 

 pericarp and a crustaceous or osseous putamen, which is almost always one- 

 celled and one-seeded by abortion. It is generally of an oblong, ovoid, or 

 nearly globular form, but of a very remarkable, almost kidney shape, in Apo- 

 dytes, with a fleshy protuberance from the hollow side. 



The seed, of the same form as the drupe, fills the cell ; the testa is of ex- 

 ceeding tenuity, and indeed, in many specimens I have opened, it can scarcely 

 be distinguished from the albumen, which fills the seed and is of a fleshy or 

 somewhat cartilaginous consistence. In its axis is a narrow cavity, at the 

 upper end of which (that is, in relation to the fruit) is a straight embryo, 

 usually very short, with a short radicle pointing upwards (with relation to the 

 fruit), and orate or oblong cotyledons. The plumula is inconspicuous. In 

 Olax, Heisteria, Schoepfia and Cansjera, and probably also in Ximenia and 

 Opilia, the placenta becomes combined with the seed, and assumes the form 

 of a thin cord or mere furrow up one side. The seed then becomes to all 

 appearance erect, attached by a broad umbilicus at the base, the embryo being 

 at the opposite end, although, physiologically speaking, the broad umbilicus is 

 the base of the placenta, and the real hilum is the extremity of the cord or 

 furrow at the opposite end. This structure is plainly indicated in Gaertner's 

 figure of OZa,r*cawrfew^(Carpol. Suppl. p. 119. t. 201.), but appears to have been 



VOL. XVIII. 4 T 



