244 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
neous texture, has been mistaken for the testa, but which is 
evidently of a different nature and origin. 
I will also record some circumstances observed by me that 
may tend to throw an additional light upon the nature of this 
development. We very often find, in the fruits of Rhamnacece, 
that one of the carpels is sterile ; here generally the abortive 
coccus grows nearly to its full size, but it is quite flattened, with 
its line of dehiscence, as usual, along the middle of the ventral 
face ; in such carpels we always meet with a persistent unim- 
pregnated ovule, standing upon its long funicle. In Rhamnus 
chlorophorus, for example, the sterile coccus is orbicular, and 
1 j line in diameter ; the length of the ovule with its funicle is 
^ line ; it is erect ; the foramen of the primine is distinctly open, 
and points downward, the tunic itself showing as yet no indication 
of any plicatm’e ; the secundine, seen through the primine, is 
shorter and smaller; and the nucleus is much narrowed, being 
scarcely half the length of the primine ; while the chalaza is 
clearly visible in the summit, and also the thick distinct opake 
line of the raphe extending into it from the funicle. The posi- 
tion of the raphe, in this ovule, exactly corresponds with its 
place and direction in the ripe seed, showing, as I have before 
indicated (p. 235), that its situation, which has been considered 
abnormal in the seed, is not due to any twisting of the funicle, 
or to any distui’bance caused by the subsequent plicature of the 
different parts of the ovule ; and this we find to be further proved 
by the presence of the “ telse conductrices ’’ immediately beneath 
the foramen of the primine, which would not happen had the 
ovule been forced round into this position by the torsion of its 
umbilical cord. I have found, in the several instances examined, 
the main line of the raphe and funicle constantly in one and the 
same position upon the dorsal face, everted more than the quarter 
of a circle (140°) from the point of zero, starting from the axial 
line of the fruit : from the chalazal summit, and down the con- 
trary or ventral face of the primine, is seen a second cord, cor- 
responding in position with the ventral raphe of the seed, and 
running from the summit to the mouth of the tunic. In one 
instance I traced the existence of spiral vessels for more than 
half the length of this cord ; in another they were visible nearly 
as far as the foramen, but the dorsal cord was too opake to 
allow them to be detected, although their presence there cannot 
be doubted. The stipitate funicle was about a quarter of the 
length of the primine, and was covered with a number of elon- 
gated transparent cells, apparently in progress of extension, in 
the manner observed by Brongniart, as above quoted ; and to 
their growth and expansion we may probably look for the origin 
of the crustaceous coating of the seed. 
