222 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
well macerated and cut open transversely, showed no signs of 
any embryo ; but in its centre was a large vacuity, the sides of 
which were pressed together by the shrinking of the mass : this 
vacuity presented a very polished surface ; and from it several 
rays branched towards the circumference, leaving so many fleshy 
wedges between the radiating spaces ; near the summit these 
spaces terminated in one point, and in the solid part above this 
I discovered with some difficulty a very minute embryo, about 
half a line in diameter, consisting of two distinct, orbicular, flat, 
foliaceous cotyledons, with a notch on the margin for the inser- 
tion of the radicle, which was unfortunately lost in its extraction ; 
but the polished indentation of the entire embryo, left in the 
substance of the albumen, indicated its shape and relative size 
in regard to the cotyledons. The evidence of this structure is 
therefore nearly complete. In the diminutive size of the em- 
bryo, imbedded in the summit of the albumen, this structure 
quite agrees with that of Heisteria and other genera of the Ola- 
cacea ; and it may be fm-ther remarked that I have observed in 
the albumen of Heisteria and Liriosma a constant large vacant 
space, running from its base up its centre, and terminating in 
the more solid part below the summit, in which the small em- 
bryo is imbedded. 
From the structure of the ovary, fruit, and seed, combined 
with other characters, it is manifest that Aptandra is nearly 
allied to the Olacacece, agreeing with that order in the form and 
aestivation of the calyx and petals. The singular enlargement of 
the calyx, which ultimately half envelopes the fruit, occui’s in a 
very similar manner in Olax, Heisteria, and some other genera ; 
hvX Aptandra is very distinct from every genus of that family in the 
remarkable confluence of the stamens into a long, thick, mona- 
delphous tube, which embraces the style, and bears a number of 
extrorse anther-cells, adnate below its summit, just as in Canelld, 
but which burst by the deflection of their outer valves, as in 
Diclidanthera. 
This striking peculiarity might well claim the right of Ap- 
tandra to be the type of a distinct family allied to Olacacece ; but 
I will not venture to propose it until other analogous genera 
are discovered : in the meantime it may remain as a suborder of 
that family, bearing the name of Aptandrea. 
To the generic characters of Aptandra, as before given (p. 2), 
we may therefore now add : — 
Drupa magna, sicca, globosa, calyce persistente aucto cupulari 
laxe semicincta, pericarpio coriaceo indehiscente, 1-locularis, 
1-sperma. Semen imo loculi affixum; integumenta ignota; 
albumen copiosum, carnosum, a basi ultra medium radiatim 
