MYRISTICACEA. 493 
also, the female flowers only possess a gyneceum within the perianth 
(figs..302, 303). This is gamosepalous in the females, with three 
valvate teeth reflexed on anthesis; it is a little better developed 
than in the males. The gynzceum is free superior, formed of a 
conical ovary, tapering above and traversed by a longitudinal groove 
down the placentary edge. The two lips of this groove become 
thickened towards the top, and are everted and covered with stig- 
matic papille. The ovary contains only a single cell, with a sub- 
Myristica fragrams. 
Fia. 299. Fie. 300. Fra, 301. Fie. 802. Fid. 808. 
Male flower, Male flower, Longitudinal sec- Female flower (§). Longitudinal section 
perianth re- Diagram. tion of male of female flower. 
moved (2). flower (4). 
basilar placenta bearing a solitary suberect anatropous ovule; the 
micropyle looks downwards, away from the grooved side of the 
ovary. The fruit (fig. 298) is a berry often pear-shaped, opening 
lengthwise when ripe,’ to free a large ascending seed. This is sur- 
rounded by a fleshy coloured aril, more or less laciniate and rising 
to a variable distance between the pericarp and seed, well known 
under the name of mace (Fr., macis ; figs. 305, 306°). The seed-coats 
1Jt has two coats. The nucleus is imme- it is one of the most contested points in botany. 
diately enveloped in a bottle-shaped secundine 
with a thick neck traversed by a slender canal ; 
its truncate mouth does not protrude through 
the exostome. This last, placed some way 
above the hilum, is circular or elliptical, with 
thin edges (see Adansonia, v. 178). 
2 It opens from above downwards, along the 
dorsal and ventral sutures, so that it finally 
forms two distinct valves. 
3 The much discussed nature and origin of 
this aril have been the subject of many works; 
The older botanists confined themselves +o 
stating that mace was an arillary product of 
the nutmeg-seed. It was PrancHon who, in 
1844, in his Mémoire sur les vrais et faux 
arilles (33), modified the hitherto received 
opinions on the subject, and placed mace in his 
category of false arils; a view which he has re- 
cently reproduced (in Ann. Se. Nat., sér. 4, 
v. 4), and which has been fully adopted by 
A. Dr CanporzE (in Ann. Se. Nat., sér. 4, iv. 
20). Dercaisne & Lemaour (Zrait. Gén. de 
