14.2 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
oval shape, somewhat less compressed, and a little rostrated 
where it points towards the hilum, which has a correspondin'; 
hollow for its reception ; this is covered by two distinct mem- 
branes, of which the outermost or third integument is reticulated 
with long polygonoid areoles, while the next or fourth integu- 
ment, which immediately invests the albumen, is somewhat 
thicker than the former, and has very minute hexagonal reticu- 
lations, the areoles of which are smaller than the cells of the 
albumen : these two membranes are homogeneous throughout, 
and are easily separable from one another at all points, except 
at the chalaza, where, together with the second fleshy tunic, all 
three arc intimately confluent. The albumen is fleshy ; and im- 
bedded in its substance, close to the rostrated point before men- 
tioned, we find the embryo, which is extremely small and shortly 
cylindrical, the radicular end pointing to the hilum, the opposite 
extremity being cleft into two very minute gaping cotyledons. 
From these facts I infer that the outer testaceous shell is an 
arillus, developed probably from the placenta, and that the 
whole of the fleshy spongy coating (together with its included 
raphe and its fungous hilum) is a growth or expansion of the 
placentary sheath of the ovule, thus forming an investing entire 
sac, and assuming the peculiar condition which 1 have called an 
arilline* or fleshy development of the primine of the ovule. 
The generic character, from my observations, may be thus 
defined. 
Illicium, Linn. — Flores hermaphroditi. Sepala 3 vel 6 peta- 
loidea, membranacea, aestivatione imbricata, caduca. Petala 
9 ad 30, patentia, 3-pluri-serialia, interiora angustiora et 
minora, aestivatione imbricata, decidua. Stamina indefinita 
(12 ad 40), pluriserialia, hypogyna, patentia; filamenta brevia, 
carnosula; antherce adnatae, loculis segregatis margine fila- 
menti semi-immersis, sublateraliter dehiscentibus. Ovaria 
5-15, compressa, sessilia, libera, suberecta, serie unica gyno- 
phoro brevi insidentia, 1-locularia; ovula solitaria, ex angulo 
basali adscendentia, anatropa. Stylus subulatus, recurvus, 
latere veutrali stigmatosus. Folliculi plurimi (5-15), coriaceo- 
lignosi, compress!, rostrati, liberi, circa gynophorum centralem 
stellatim adnati et horizontaliter radiantes, sub-2-valves, rima 
superiore hiantes, 1-loculares, monospermi. Semen oblon- 
gum, compressum, hilo majusculo excavatum et hinc ad axin 
centralem horizontaliter affixum ; tunica externa Crustacea, 
dura, ore calloso incrassata, extus vitrea et nitidissima, intus 
structura hexagonoidea reticulata, et crystalloidea; tunica se- 
cunda crassiuscula, superficie bullata, extremitate hilari crassa, 
* Linn. Trans, xxii. 89. 
