337 
Campbell . — ■ Studies on the Araceae , II L 
including a good deal of starch, in the cells of the endosperm and embryo, 
which, although of large size, does not fill the whole embryo-sac. In the 
endosperm-cells of the half-grown seed, the characteristic raphides were 
found, a rather unusual occurrence in endosperm-cells. The bulk of the 
seed is derived from the embryo-sac. The integuments formed the well- 
developed testa, but the great development of the chalazal region, so 
conspicuous in Aglaonema and Lysichiton , for example, is wanting in 
Anthurium . 
The papillae upon the funiculus secrete mucilage very freely, and the 
presence of this interferes often with fixing the material for study, and it is 
necessary to avoid aqueous fixing agents. The inner tissue of the ovary 
wall also becomes mucilaginous, and the ripe seeds are thus imbedded in 
a pulpy, adhesive mass which no doubt facilitates their attachment to the 
substratum upon which they germinate. 
Nephthytis Liberica, Schott. 
The genus Nephthytis comprises two species of West African aroids, 
one of which, N. Liberica , was growing and fruiting at Kew, and a fairly 
complete series of specimens was collected. 
This species proved to be a very puzzling one, as there was extra- 
ordinary variation shown in the development of the embryo-sac, which 
departed widely from the ordinary angiospermous type. It approached 
more nearly Aglaonema commutatum than any other form which has yet 
been investigated, and as the structure of the flower is very similar in both 
of these old world Araceae, it is quite probable that they are more nearly 
related than would be indicated by the relative positions given them by 
Engler h 
As in Aglaonema , the flowers of Nephthytis are diclinous, the pistillate 
flowers being at the base of the spadix whose upper part is completely 
covered with the crowded naked staminate flowers. 
Each pistillate flower consists of a single carpel with a solitary basal, 
anatropous ovule. The stigma is broad and peltate, the whole flower 
resembling very closely that of Aglaonema 1 2 . 
Owing to imperfect development, or to defects in the fixing methods 
employed, the pollen-grains were very badly shrunken and distorted, and 
no satisfactory study of their development and structure could be made, 
so that a comparison with the corresponding stages of the other Araceae 
was not possible, and the work in Nephthytis was confined to a study of the 
embryo-sac and embryo. 
1 According to Engler (loc. cit., p. 128), the ovule of Nephthytis is at the apex of the loculus of 
the ovary. In the plants labelled N. Liberica at Kew, from which my material was taken, the 
ovule was invariably at the base of the loculus, exactly resembling Aglaonema in this respect. 
2 Campbell, loc, cit., II, pp. 668-9. 
