Gnetum Gnemon , with Notes on Gnetum funiculare . 4r 
The ovules show the structure of the middle part of the seed more 
satisfactorily than do the older seeds, where more lignification has made 
sections of this part almost unattainable. The extreme tip of the outer 
integument is parenchymatous, but a little lower a band of lignified tissue 
appears on its inner edge (Photo 14, PI. I), and as soon as the terminations 
of the vascular bundles are reached this band becomes rayed, each ray 
projecting opposite a vascular bundle. At first there are four or five 
vascular bundles, and four or five rays to the fibrous band as described in 
G. africanurn , in a former paper., 1 but a little lower a large number appear 
in the sections. Near the apex of the middle covering the cells of the 
thick-walled tissue, and also of the outer parenchymatous tissue, which is 
here expanded to form the widened shoulders of the seed, are radially 
elongated and arranged in radial rows, and a palisade layer is visible 
between the thick- and thin-walled cells, but this soon becomes irregular. 
Below the shoulders the thickening of the walls almost ceases at this stage, 
and they are no longer lignified, though a differentiation into inner and 
outer layers is visible throughout. 
The oval pointed fleshy seeds of G. Gnemon have been figured by 
Lotsy, 2 but the seeds here described in detail were of much greater size. 
The rnatnre seed . Text-fig. 2 A is drawn to scale from a mature seed 
of G. Gnemon 3-3 cm. long. Half of the outer covering has been pared 
away, leaving exposed the outer integument, which is distinctly angled. 
The apex of the closed micropylar tube is here seen to be fused with 
the outermost covering, forming a sort of stopper. At the same time the 
tip of the middle covering (o) is no longer fused with the lower flange of the 
micropylar tube, but the outer covering has grown up and carried with it 
the ‘stopper’, breaking the micropylar tube across at its weakest point. 
The apex of the middle covering is now at a considerable distance below the 
stopper and a bit of broken micropylar tube (B) sticks out from it. 
A section of the apex of the seed is seen more highly magnified in 
Text-fig. 2 D. The indurated open tip of the micropylar tube, which is 
unusually long in this particular specimen, yet does not extend to the 
surface of the outer covering, is seen in section surrounded by a long 
upwardly directed flange (Af) which has grown out from the wall of the tube 
lower down. The outer surface of the wall below this flange is fused with 
the outer covering. In this region the wall of the tube is thickest, and the 
lumen is filled with thin-walled closing tissue (/), derived from the ingrowth 
of the epidermal cells. Below this thin-walled tissue there is a gap (G) 
with a torn irregular lining ; here part of the wall of the tube alone is left 
fused to the outer covering, the inner part of the tube with its mass of 
closing tissue having been dragged out when the tube broke across (micro- 
pylar beak, Text-fig. 2 A), owing to the greater growth in length of the outer 
1 Ibid., p. 1 1 15 . 2 Lotsy, 1899. 
