CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
127 
in the bud, forms one entire valveless covering, and at length 
bursts into two concave segments, moi’e by a laceration of the 
tegument than by any distinguishable commissure : it is deci- 
duous. Its lanceolate petals are distinct to the base, and are 
variable in number, being sometimes only five to eight, when 
they are uniserial ; in other cases they vary from ten to sixteen, 
when they are biserial ; and not unfrequently they are as many 
as twenty-four, when they are in three whorls : they are white, 
and also deciduous. The stamens likewise vary in number, 
being generally very numerous, and arranged in one to seven 
whorls, of five to eight in each whorl, somewhat increasing in 
length, the inner series being longest : they are all short, less 
than one-sixth the length of the petals, and seated, together with 
them and the ovaries, upon a very short stipitiform gynobase. 
The ovaries, which are variable in number, from five to eight, 
are always free, uniserial, and erect ; they have no sensible style, 
the short umbilicated stigma being sessile upon the ventral side 
of the conical and somewhat gibbous ovary, just below its apex, 
from which point a ridge extends to the base : they are always 
unilocular, with a single placentiferous line upon the ventral 
face, corresponding with the ridge just mentioned. Upon the 
edges of this band are aiTanged about sixteen ovules, in eight 
collateral series, extending from the stigma to the base of the 
cell, each reniform ovule being suspended from its sinus by a 
short funicle. The ovaries ripen into as many small pear-shaped 'S' 
berries, each containing ten or fewer seeds, closely packed in a 
thin pulp, which possesses a very aromatic taste and smell. The 
seeds are densely black, very polished, obtusely rostellated above, 
swelling below in a somewhat reniform or cochleate shape, with 
a small concave hilum beneath the summit, to which the short 
funicle is attached. The outer shell is thin, hard, and brittle, 
formed entirely of short, transverse, crystalline cylinders, with- 
out vessels of any kind : the next tunic beneath this brittle shell 
is of a spongy texture, and of cellular structure, the cells being 
filled with coloui-ed aromatic oily matter ; it is covered by a thin 
pellicular reticulated membrane, inside of which, and adhering 
intimately to it upon its ventral side, there is seen a very 
distinct thick cord of some length (a raphe), consisting of a 
bundle enclosing spiral vessels, which cord extends from the 
hilar point to a dark spot (the chalaza) situated just below the 
deep sinus : again, within this coating, there are two very di- 
stinct reticulated membranes, which, by the medium of a small 
quantity of intervening glandular matter, become sbmewhat 
adherent together ; these integuments are homogeneous in all 
parts, except where they are thickened at the chalazal disk just 
mentioned. The enclosed nucleus consists of a mass of fleshy 
