CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
203 
to it, and the line from the centre of the chalaza through the 
middle of the nucleus is straight ; such a bud is termed reversed 
{gemmula anatropa ) ; the adherent part of the funiculus is termed 
the raphe.” Schleiden farther aptly remarks — “ Excepting 
Fritsche, not a single botanist has done anything on this weighty 
point of our subject, not even so much as to re-examine the 
researches of the distinguished Mirbel and Brown ; and we tind 
in consequence, even up to the most recent dates, the false views 
of Mirbel (and these often sadly disfigured) copied without 
refleetion.” 
Prof. Henfrey (in 1847), in his truly excellent ‘Outlines ot 
Structural and Physiological Botany ’ (p. 199), thus defines the 
nature of the anatropal ovule ; — “ The nucleus is sometimes jso 
affected by the development, that the apex or micropyle comes 
to be placed next the hilum, and the organic base of the ovule 
(the chalaza) at the opposite extremity ; the vascular cord com- 
municating with the chalaza is extended during the growth of 
the ovule, and the chalaza thus always communicates with the 
funiculus by these vessels, which run in the thickness of the 
coats, in the exterior where there are two. This eord is called 
the raphe, looking like a prolongation of the funicle adherent to 
the side of the ovule, and disappearing at the point, which is 
the organic base.” This description, as far as it goes, is the 
elearest and most truthful detail of the development of the 
ovule yet given, as it does not allude to any presumed action 
of the inversion of the nucleus and its ovular coats, upon 
which all other accounts are more or less based. This scientific 
botanist, however, appears subsequently (in 1858) to have 
adopted the prevalent error in contending that “ the inversion 
of the (anatropal) ovule takes place by a one-sided development 
of the tunics*.” 
Prof. Asa Gray has lately pursued this inquiry (in 1857) in 
a very philosophical spirit, in his investigation into the grow th 
of the ovule of Magnolia-^ fi’om its earliest periods ; he confines 
himself solely to the appearanees seen in the different stages of 
its growth, which he illustrates by figures, without reference to 
any theory on the subject : those figures well accord with the 
explanation I have rendered of MirbePs illustrations of the de- 
velopment of the ovule in Aristolochia and Tulipa ; but there 
appears to me some little error in fig. 2, where the earliest pul- 
lulation is always somewhat excentric in instances of anatropy — ■ 
never at the extreme tip, which would generate an atropal 
ovule. 
* Ann. Nat. Hist. 3 ser. i. 356. 
t “ A short exposition of the structure of the ovule and seed of 
nolia,” Journ. Linn. Soc. ii. 106. 
2 D 2 
