46 



NOTES ON D1PTEROCARPS. 



The inequality of the cotyledons is apparently connected with 

 the way in which they are packed in the seed. A compromise has 

 been made in them there between fleshiness for the storage of food, 

 and surface for assimilation later, resulting in extension beyond the 

 diameter of the seed and in a rolling of the embryo on itself which 

 places one cotyledon outside the other : and probably therefrom comes 

 their inequality ; but why the inequality should be repeated in the 

 whorl which succeeds the cotyledons is not evident. Shoreas have 



Fig. 7. above. The whorl of leaves expanded, showing the 

 inequality : I. pair, the larger pair ; and 



Fig, 8. below. Tho whorl and the fifth leaf, seen from above. 



Jour. Straits Branch 



