CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
115 
black, crustaceous shell ; and on the ventral face, just above its 
sinus, is seen an open scar or hilar spot, indicating the point of 
its suspension ; while a little above this is a small obsolete pro- 
minence, corresponding with an internal point, to which the 
enclosed nucleus is attached. On breaking this internal tunic, 
the nucleus is found covered with a tolerably thick coating of a 
loose tissue, in which is imbedded a short thread-like raphe 
enelosing spiral vessels, proceeding from the point of attaehment 
just mentioned, and terminating in a thickening of the proper 
integuments seen on the ventral face, just below the sinus. This 
envelope of loose texture is quite analogous in its structure to a 
similar development in the seed of Drimijs, which I have else- 
where more minutely described, differing only in its eomponent 
cells being filled with mucilaginous instead of fatty deposits ; 
the origin, course, and termination of the raphe being alike in 
both cases : so also the innermost integuments are similar in 
texture to those of Drhmjs, and though slightly agglutinated 
together, are separable at all points except about the spot where 
the raphe terminates in a broad, circular, dark, areolar thicken- 
ing of their substance, where they are intimately connected. 
The position and direction of the embryo, in very copious albu- 
men, offer other striking points of resemblance; although the 
embryo is much larger and more elongated in Canella, and more 
minute in Drimijs, still the cotyledons in the former, though 
proportionally longer, are terete, and the extremity of the radicle 
in both cases is closely contiguous to the point of suspension of 
the seed. One feature, worthy of especial notice, is even more 
strongly developed here than in Drimijs : the direction of the 
embryo does not correspond with the axis of the albumen ; nor 
do the cotyledons tend towards the chalaza, but lie on the con- 
trary side, in quite an excenti-ical position. I have observed in 
Canella, as well as in Drimys, within the body of the albumen, 
the remains of the embryo-sae extending from the cotyledonary 
extremity of the embryo, surrounded by soft mucilaginous mat- 
ter. From the above facts we may draw the same conclusion in 
regard to the nature of these several tunics of the seed in Canella 
that I have done in that of Drimys, — viz. that the external crus- 
taceous tunic, being quite free from the raphe which is imbedded 
in a more internal envelope, must be a development subsequent 
to the growth of the true coats of the ovule, and that it is in 
reality an arillus : that the intermediate tunic in which the 
raphe is imbedded is the arilline or fleshy testa*, while the 
innermost integument immediately covering the albumen is 
the tegmen, as shown by its areolar thickening at the chalaza. 
Q 2 
Linn. Trans, xxii. 81. 
