74 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
point, along the external ventral side of the nut, to its base. A 
corresponding termination of the funiculus is observable in the 
putamen of Mappia-, but there no such aperture exists, although 
the point of suspension is at the same spot, and a similar cord 
is likemse seen externally, descending from that point, along the 
ventral face to the base, as in Pennantia. Reisseck describes the 
ovarium as being sometimes 2-locular, though generally 1 -locular, 
and in his analytical sections it is represented as having only a 
single cell. Endlicher, however, in his ‘ Prodr. FI. Norf.^ had long 
before stated it to be 3-locular, in the species from Norfolk 
Island, a fact repeated in his ‘ Genera Plautarum.’ A. Cunning- 
ham, quoting the generic character upon Endlicher’s authority, 
also describes the ovarium of the New Zealand species to be 
3-locular (Ann. Nat. Hist. iii. 248). Endlicher, however, in the 
3rd Supplement of the ‘ Genera Plantarum,’ evidently upon the 
testimony of Reisseck, renounces his former statement, and de- 
scribes the ovarium as being unilocular, a discrepancy manifestly 
attributable to different views, entertained at different times, in 
regard to its affinity, it having been referred at one period to 
Rhamnaceee, at another to Anacardiacece ; it is not recorded that 
such views originated in any careful observations upon its in- 
ternal structure. Reisseck in addition states, that its ovarium 
(either 1- or 2-ceIled) has a single ovule suspended by a long 
liliform and erect placenta, which rises from the bottom of the 
cell to near the summit, as in Rhus ; but I have not been able to 
observe any such feature, and the fact that the seed is suspended 
from a strophiole which passes through a foramen near the apex 
of the nut, and which is connected with the cord that descends 
hence externally to the calyx, militates strongly against the pro- 
bability of the existence of any such internal connexion of the 
podosperm with the base of the cavity. In Pennantia we see 
the existence of a testa and integument furnished with a dorsal - 
raphe and a nearly basal chalaza, which I have not been able to 
detect in Mappia ; but in the latter case, these featui’es were not 
distinguishable, on account of the seeds having been long desic- 
cated, the albumen having become black, the integuments much 
decayed, and adhering to the cavity of the nut. The seed of 
Pennantia differs from that of Mappia in having a much smaller 
and almost terete embryo, placed in the upper portion of the 
albumen, in which respect it agrees with Apodytes, while in 
Mappia the cotyledons are of considerable size and foliaceous, 
as in Celastrus. It should also be remarked, that in the New 
Zealand and Norfolk Island species, the stigma is described as 
being large, pulviniform and sessile, exactly as it has erroneously 
been figured in Stemonurus ; but, as in that genus, this will be 
seen to occur here alone in the ovuligerous flowers, and then 
