Menispermaeea.] flora indica. 169 



The stamens are normally free and definite, one being placed opposite each petal, 

 so that they form two verticils. In Limacia triandra they are reduced to three ; in 

 another species of the same genus their number is nine; and in Menispermum and 

 Galycocarpum they are indefinite. lu Pycnarrhena, Chmmanthera, and Abuta (of 

 Poppig) the filaments are partially monadelphous ; and in Paratana, Aspidocarya, 

 and the whole of the tribe Cissampelidea, they are combined into a central column, 

 bearing on its apex a flat peltate disc, antheriferous round the margin. In Ana- 

 mirta the structure is still more complex, the anthers being united into a globose 

 mass. 



The ovaries are sometimes seated directly on the torus, but not nnfrequently they 

 are supported by a distinct gynophore, which becomes very conspicuous as the fruit 

 advances to maturity. Their number is usually three ; but in the tribe Cissampeli- 

 dem they are always solitary, and in Cocculus ovalifolius and Cosdnium there are 

 generally six. In Tiliacora they are indefinite in number. 



The ovary of Menispermacece is generally oval or oblong, straight on the ventral 

 suture, and rounded on the back, with a terminal style. The ovules are solitary and 

 peltate, and inserted at or below the middle of the ventral suture, with the micro- 

 pyle invariably superior, and the chalaza at the broad end of the ovule, which is 

 nearest the base of the ovary. In Aspidocari/a, and an undetermined species nearly 

 allied to it, in which the seed is pendulous and anatropous, the ovule is probably at- 

 tached near the apex of the ovary ; but nevertheless the micropyle and foramen have 

 the same position as iu the rest of the Order. 



During the ripening of the fruit great changes take place in the structure of the 

 ovary. The dorsum grows more rapidly than the ventral part, so that the style or 

 its cicatrix, which is terminal in the ovary, is in the ripe fruit more or less lateral, 

 and in a large part of the Order is situated close to the base of the carpel. While 

 this irregular development of the parietes of the ovary is proceeding, the inner wall 

 gradually hardens into a more or less woody putamen, sometimes very thick and 

 almost bony, at other times thin and brittle, and variously tuberculated. At the 

 same time the podosperm lengthens as the hilum of the seed is carried by the in- 

 creasing curvature of the walls of the ovary further and further from the base of the 

 fniit ; while the putamen, which thus becomes as it were doubled upon itself, in- 

 vests it with a bony sheath, which takes a great diversity of form in different parts of 

 the Order. 



Mr. GrifBth* has thrown out a conjecture that the woody or bony portion of 

 the fruit is not putamen, but testa. This view receives some support iiom the fact 

 that only one very delicate coat can he detected on the seed, and from the peculiar 

 mode in which the bony coat adapts itself to the shape of the seed; but it is not 

 borne out by a study of the development of the ovule, which we have been able to 

 trace so satisfactorily as to ascertain beyond a doubt that this coat belongs to the 

 ovary, and not to the ovule. 



The form of the embryo is very difi^erent in different tribes of the Order. Except 

 in Aspidocarya it is always more or less curved ; and in the greater part of the 

 Order, where the style-scar is situated near the base of the fruit, the radicle, which 

 always points towards it, is brought almost into contact with the base of the fruit 

 and the chalazal extremity of the seed. In the division Heterodinece the cotyledons 

 are foliaceous and very thin, and (usually laterally) divaricated, so as to occupy dis- 

 tinct cavities in the albumen. The seed is therefore broad, and, but for the peculiar 

 mode of growth of the putamen, would be quite flat, as it is in the genus Aspido- 

 carya. This, however, causes it to assume a globular shape ; but it is hollow within, 

 and moulds itself on an internal process of the putamen, which Mr. Miers has 

 called condyle.^ In the remainder of the Order the narrow, strap-shaped or hemi- 



* Itinerary Notes, p. 165. 



f We have not adopted this teim, partly because it does not represent an organ 

 or structure analogous to that so called in osteology, and partly because we hesitate 

 to apply sjSecific terms to modifications of structure which are confined to small 



Z 



