288 NOTES ON DIPTEROCARPS. 
followed very quickly by death. An experiment was made with 
six fruits in order to see if submergence inhibited the splitting of 
the fruit wall: apparently it did not; for all the six germinated in 
six days under water. The splitting is the work of the germinat- 
ing young plant pushing itself free. 
Figures 12, 13 and 14. Three empty fruits showing various degrees: 
of gaping. 
The petioles of the cotyledons. elongate in germination so 
much as to attain 2-7 cm. pushing the radicle out to the soil before 
they free themselves from the fruit-wall. They possess abundant 
chlorophyll. 
Leaving Shorea Thiseltont, attention will now be directed to: 
Vatica Ridleyana, Brandis. 
This species grows wild in the Botanic Gardens, Singapore. 
It flowered in January, 1921, and bore ripe fruits from near the 
end of the year into the first quarter of 1922 ;—flowering had lasted 
a couple of weeks, but fruit-fall lasted three months. The con- 
siderable weight of the fruits has already been remarked: it 
remains to call attention to the circumstance that their growth 
from flowering to maturity takes twice as long as that of the 
smaller and closely alhed V. Wallichu. 
Figure 15. A seedling of Vatica Ridleyana in germination, the stalks: 
of the cotyledons pushing the plantlet into the soil.’ The outer cotyledon 
is towards the observer; above it a little of the placentar cotyledon is 
visible. Figure 16, the placentar cotyledon from the surface in contact 
with the outer cotyledon. Figure 17, the outer cotyledon from outside. 
All % mat. size. 
The placentar cotyledon is the larger and fills the lower part 
of the fruit-cavity to the exclusion of the outer cotyledon; but it 
shares equally the upper part of the cavity. The result is that 
its bulk is nearly twice that of the outer cotyledon. In Balanocar- 
Jour. Straits Branch 
