1 90 Johnson. — On the Nursing of the Embryo 
cannot be part of the perianth (perigone), but must be of the 
nature of an epigynous disc. If the calyx-tube be part of the 
perianth, the setae may be an outer whorl of the same, an 
epicalyx, or a whorl of bracteoles, or the setae may be the 
only representatives of the perianth and the calyx-tube, an 
epigynous disc. So far as my own opinion on such an 
obscure point in systematic botany is worth giving I feel 
inclined to the view that the female flower is naked like the 
male one, that the three setae are three staminodes, compar- 
able in the female flower to the remains of the gynaeceum in 
the male flower; that the ‘calyx-tube’ is simply an epigynous 
disc, and that the gynaeceum consists of three carpels, alter- 
nating with the staminodes. Van Tieghem 1 , from an investi- 
gation of the flowers of Thesium linophyllum and Osyris alba> 
concludes, in so far as an anatomical examination of these 
two species permits it, that in the flower of the Santalaceae 
generally ‘ L’etamine y est une dependance vasculaire de la 
face interne du sepale. Les trois carpelles sont vasculairement 
independants des sepales, quoique unis a eux par le parenchyme 
dans la majeure partie de leur etendue. L’axe floral ne se 
prolongue pas au-dessus de l’insertion des carpelles ; mais 
chaque feuille carpellaire porte a sa base et en superposition 
avec elle un talon vasculaire ; ce talon est, comme le carpelle 
lui-meme, uni avec ses congeneres dans la majeure partie de 
sa longueur, et il forme ainsi une colonne qui se degage plus 
ou moins tot du tissu de l’ovaire ; mais il redevient libre a 
son sommet, et c’est dans ce sommet que se developpe le sac 
embryonnaire qui lui donne la signification d’un ovule. 
A chaque carpelle correspond done un ovule, et cet 
ovule n’est autre chose qu’un lobe pedicelle du carpelle.’ 
Van Tieghem finds the flower of Santalaceae in the above 
features in complete agreement with that of the Primulaceae , 
as determined by himself. Eichler 2 for the Santalaceae and 
the Loranthaceae, and L. Jost 3 for Viscum album (though not 
1 Van Tieghem, Ann. Sc. Nat. ser. 5, tome xii. p. 346. 
2 Eichler, op. cit. pp. 541 and 553. 
3 L. Jost, Zur Entwick. d. Mistel, in Bot. Zeit. 1888, nos. 23 and 24. 
