CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
259 
seeds, he is silent about the existence of integuments, raphe, 
or chalaza, and none of his many analytical figures gives any 
information upon these subjects. 
It is to be regretted that a very small amount of reliable 
information has been recorded eoncerning the carpical struc- 
ture of the family. Among the few analyses that have been 
published, that of Gaertner is the most important : he shows 
in his work (i. 364, tab. 76. fig. 1) that of Cordia {Sebestena) 
Myxa, where the seed is suspended a little below the summit, 
with a raphe descending from that point to the base, its small 
radicle being superior, and its large fleshy cotyledons deeply 
plicated. A very different version of this structure, in a plant 
which he called Cordia Myxa^ is given in Wight’s ‘ Illustra- 
tions,’ pi. 169 : in the ovary the ovules are there shown to be 
quite erect, fixed in the basal angle of each cell ; in the fruit 
the point of the attachment of the seed is not indicated, though 
it is drawn separately in fig. 1 1 , without any mark of i aphe or 
chalaza. This analysis is drawn by an Indian artist, and 
shows evident marks of inaccuracy ; for the embryo, as shown 
in figs. 11 and 12, has a long pointed radicle, which is inferior 
(instead of superior). I therefore place more reliance upon the 
analysis of Gaertner, which is more conformable with my own 
observations, as will be shown presently. Wight’s ‘ leones,’ 
also drawn by Indian artists, show the ovules in the same 
position as that indicated in the ‘ Illustrations,’ in two other 
species of Cordia, in pis. 1379 and 1381, while in three other 
cases they are attached by their middle, as seen in plates 469, 
1378, and 1380, which agrees with what I have generally 
found in the Brazilian species of Cordia. Prof. A. De Candolle, 
in a note to the genus Varronia (Prodr. ix. 468), states that 
the ovules are there laterally affixed to the internal angle of 
the cells ; and, again, in another note (p. 471) he adds that he 
found the ovules in C. gerascanthus attached as in Varronia, 
and that in C. Chamissoniana (a closely allied species) the 
point of attachment is nearer the base ; but my observations 
upon the same species convince me that the connexion is at 
the middle, rather above than below it : in C. discolor he found 
the ovules fixed as in Varronia. My examination of the uni- 
locular nut of Cordia glabra shows that the seed, which tightly 
fits the cell, is attached by a somewhat broad hilum to a spot 
a little below the middle of the cell, from which point a line 
of raphe, imbedded between the two integuments *, descends 
* The seed, as stated by Gaertner, has two integuments : the outer 
one, of very friable texture, quite white, is composed of numerous large 
cells rather laxly agglutinated together ; but it adheres firmly to the inner 
integument, which is opaque, very finely reticulated, like an extremely 
