NOTES 
ON THE GENUS CORYNOCARPUS, FORST. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE. 
— I much regret that both Dr. Fritsch and I overlooked a paper 1 by Professor 
P. Van Tieghem, in which he discusses the anatomy, floral structure and systematic 
position of Corynocarpus. The Author courteously sent me a copy of the paper in 
question, and I hasten to make some amends for the omission of all reference to 
it in my account of the genus 2 by giving here the principal results of his investi- 
gations. His description of the anatomy of the stem and leaf agrees in the main 
with that of Dr. Fritsch ; but the latter omitted to mention the isolated crystals, 
which one cannot possibly overlook in a longitudinal section. His part, however, 
was hurriedly done just before his departure for Ceylon. I wished merely to show 
that there are no resin- ducts. 
Van Tieghem agrees with Engler in treating Corynocarpus as the type of a natural 
order or rather ‘ famille autonome/ as he designates it ; but his views on the immediate 
affinities of this genus are wholly different. He lays great stress on the structure of 
the ovule in classification, and ranges Corynocarpus ‘dans Tordre des Pernucelldes 
bitegmin^es . . . qui a pour famille type les Gdraniac^es/ I do not underestimate 
the value of anatomical characters, but I do not attach so much importance to them 
for purposes of classification as the learned author, mainly because it leads to refine- 
ments and generic subdivision impracticable in applied or daily botany. I would 
none the less recommend a perusal of his interesting paper 3 . 
Van Tieghem describes the ovule of Corynocarpus as having a large, persistent 
nucellus, surrounded by two integuments. The external integument is very thick, 
consisting of from twenty to thirty layers of cells; whilst the internal is thin, having 
only three layers of cells, of which the outer has larger cells elongated radially. 
At the micropyle the internal integument extends up the exostome but not above it, 
and the nucellus also projects into the endostome ‘so that the pollen-tube comes 
directly upon the nucellus, without having to traverse the micropyle, as directly, 
indeed, as though the two integuments did not exist/ 
I must confess that I do not quite understand this description, because the 
pollen-tube must traverse the micropyle, whether open or narrow, unless the nucellus 
actually projects to the very top of the combined endostome and exostome. 
All the writers whom I have consulted, except Van Tieghem, describe the 
leaves of Corynocarpus as exstipulate. He says they are furnished with broad, 
caducous stipules. In flowering or fruiting herbarium specimens, no stipules are 
1 Sur le genre Corynocarpe, consider^ comme type d’une famille distincte, les Corynocarpacdes. 
Tournal de Botanique , xiv (Jnillet, 1900), pp. 193-7. 
2 Annals of Botany , xvii (1903), pp. 743-60, pi. 36. 
3 See also his paper : L’Oeuf des Plantes considere comme base de leur classification, Ann. Sc. 
Nat., 8 me. sdrie, xiv (1901), pp. 213-390. 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. XVIII. No. LXIX. January, 1904.] 
