I 
in Myzodeiidron punctulatum , Banks et Sol. 197 
the apical outgrowth of the embryo-sac into the ovarian 
cavity towards the pollen-tubes in Santalum album 1 , mention 
is made of the discovery by Decaisne of similar apical out- 
growths in several other Santalaceae — in Nanodea, Myoschilos, 
Osyris, and less obscurely in Quinchamalium . In Myoschilos 
and in Osyris Decaisne again found the tube of the ovuliferous 
column. In Myoschilos a bundle of these tubes was found, 
five for each ovule fertilised. The nature of the tube is next 
discussed. The relations of its position seemed to show it 
was a nutritive bundle, but its structure and time of appear- 
ance were considered to support the view that it was a 
fertilising tube . 2 
Further, mention is made of the nearness in many respects 
of the Olacineae to the Santalaceae , a nearness which ‘ the 
wisdom of Rob. Brown’ saw first. Decaisne thought the 
structure of the ovules in the two families analogous, and in 
one genus of the Olacineae ( Groutia, FI. Seneg. = Opilia, Roxb.) 
he found a tube placed in the ovuliferous column and passing 
from it to the ovule. The reporters on the paper of Decaisne 
saw the structures described by him. Judging from the report 
and especially from one of the accompanying figures (PI. 11, 
Fig. 12) there is little doubt Decaisne saw, but did not recog- 
nise, a backward prolongation of the embryo-sac in TJiesium 
and several other Santalaceae 3 . 
1 Griffith, in Trans. Linn. Soc. xviii. p. 58. 
2 At this time (1840) the egg-apparatus, as such, was unknown. Schleiden’s 
theory that the embryo was the pinched-off end of the pollen-tube penetrated into 
the embryo-sac, was in full force, and there were the hypothesis of * M. Endlicher, 
who considers the moisture of the stigma as the fertilising substance : that of 
M. Schleiden, who attributes similar functions to the embryonary sac ; and that of 
M. Unger, who believes that the pollen-grains when they arrive on the stigma are 
already fecundated ’ (Griffith). 
3 I have not been able to find any other account of Decaisne’ s observations on 
the Santalaceae. In the ‘ Nouveaux Memoires de l’Academie de Bruxelles ’ 
(vol. xiii. 1841), a paper by Decaisne appears as ‘ Memoire sur le Developpement 
du pollen, de l’ovule et sur la structure des Liges du Gui.’ In a prefatory note 
Decaisne states that his observations on Loranthus and the Loranthaceae generally, 
on the structure and development of the ovule of the Santalaceae and of the 
Olacineae , extending over several years and carried on independently of Griffith’s, 
are postponed because incomplete. 
