CHAP. II. 
OVULE. 
183 
" I have remarked the fifth envelope, or quintine, in many 
species ; its general characters are such as to prevent its being 
mistaken. Its complete development takes place only in a 
nucleus which remains full of cellular tissue, or in a quartine 
that has filled with the same. At the centre of the tissue is 
organised, as in a womb, the first rudiment of the quintine ; 
it is a sort of delicate intestine, which holds by one end to the 
summit of the nucleus, and by the other end to the chalaza. 
The quintine swells from top to bottom ; it forces back on all 
sides the tissue that surrounds it, and it often even invades the 
place occupied by the quartine or the nucleus. A very 
delicate thread, the suspensor, descends from the summit of 
the ovule into the quintine, and bears at its extremity a 
globule which is the nascent embryo." 
It is apparently this quintine that Brown describes, in 
the ovule of the Orchis tribe, as a thread consisting of a 
simple series of short cells, the lowermost joint or cell of 
which is probably the original state of what afterwards, from 
enlargement and deposit of granular matter, becomes the 
opaque speck, or rudiment of the future embryo. (Observ. 
on the Organs^ S^c. of Orch. and Asclepiad, pp. 18, 19.) 
" The existence," continues Mirbel, " of a cavity in the 
quartine, or, indeed, the destruction of the internal tissue of 
the nucleus, at the period when the quintine developes, 
becomes the cause of some modifications in the manner of 
existence of this latter integument. The quintine is never 
seen, in certain Cucurbitaceae, adhering to the chalaza : it is 
nevertheless evident that the adhesion has existed. The 
quintine, distended at its upper part, and suspended like a 
lustre from the top of the cavity, still presents at its lower end 
a portion of a rudimentary intestine become distinct ; the 
separation occurred very early, in consequence of the tearing 
of the tissue of the nucleus. 
" The quintine of Statice is reduced to a sort of cellular 
placenta, to the lower surface of which the embryo is attached. 
This abortion of the quintine arises from the quartine having 
a large internal cavity, which prevents the young quintine 
from placing itself in communication with the chalaza, and 
N 4 
