Notes. 
381 
has amplified Beccari’s description. He suggested a search for 
the hitherto unknown embryo and kindly supplied me with seeds 
for the purpose. The excessively minute seed has an external layer 
of large cells with cuticularised walls which easily separate from 
the inner portion of the seed. This latter part of the seed has 
some seven or eight ridges and furrows, and is laterally in contact 
with the outer layer of cells only at the tops of the ridges, excepting 
at its two ends where a few thin-walled cells intervene between it 
Hg. 5- 
B 
and the outer layer. A transverse section (d ^grammatically repre- 
sented by Fig. 5 A) shows that the extreme hardness of this core of 
the seed is caused by two thick, glistening, suberised membranes 
which are separated by a space containing a brown colouring-matter 
(partially tannin). In this space I could recognise neither pro- 
toplasm, nor cell-walls crossing it, so I suppose it is an intercellular 
space due to the disintegration of the middle lamella; but an 
examination of stages younger than those which I possess, may 
show that the space really represents a disorganised layer of flattened 
cells. Within the inner of the two membranes lies the endosperm 
