Gnetum Gnemon , with Notes on Gnetum funicular e. 51 
of the seed in B. Morierei (see Text-fig. 5 ), the freely projecting beak-like 
base of the micropylar tube corresponding to his ‘ nucellar beak and the 
space within it to his ‘ pollen-chamber ’ ; 1 the small lysigenous space 
described by him at the apex of the nucellus, and stated to have been once 
seen to contain objects which resembled pollen grains , 2 corresponds in 
position to the pollen-chamber in the young seeds of Gnetum. Lignier 
thought the integument and micropylar tube were continuous, though there 
was no detailed resemblance between their respective cell organization ; 
and it may well be that the micropylar tube was here, as in Gnetum , 
fastened by a flange to the top of the outer integument , 3 while the projecting 
4 beak 5 is really the broken base of the same micropylar tube. 
Miss Berridge, while comparing the seed of G. Gnemon to B . Morierei , 
suggested that the nucellar beak in the latter is comparable to the closing 
tissue of the micropylar tube in G. Gnemon ; Lignier (1911), in reply, draws 
attention to the massive structure of the nucellar beak in B. Morierei, which 
he says is 4 totalement independant du tube micropylaire ’, while the tissue 
closing the micropyle is produced 4 au-dessus du sommet nucellaire’, that is 
to say, there is a space between the stopper, i. e. the closed apex of the 
micropylar tube, and the beak ; there is just such a space now described in 
the mature seed of G. Gnemon , between the stopper and the broken-off base 
of the micropylar tube, the whole of which broken-off base (and not the 
closing tissue only) I am here comparing with the so-called 4 nucellar beak ’ 
in B. Morierei. 
Summary. 
This paper describes the series of changes which occur in the develop- 
ment of the seed in G. Gnemon. The young seed has three coverings, the 
inner of which projects freely upwards as the micropylar tube ; by a series 
of growth-changes, the canal of the micropylar tube becomes closed and its 
apical region broken off from the base. 
This apical region then forms a sort of 4 stopper ’ firmly fused by 
a flange on to the outer covering. By the growth of the outer covering the 
stopper is carried up away from the lower part of the tube ; a considerable 
distance is thus established between the stopper and the top of the middle 
covering, over which the flange originally projected. 
The broken-off basal part of the tube then projects as a sort of 4 beak ’ 
through the opening in the top of the middle covering ; this beak is solid 
1 Thoday, 1911, p! 1128 . 
2 Berridge, 1911 ; Thoday, 1911. In some seeds of G. Gnemon , Berridge, Fig. 1 , and my two 
ovules 8 mm. long, the lower part of the micropylar tube below the closed region is lined by a ragged 
torn layer of cells very suggestive of Lignier’s ‘ lysigenous pollen-chamber ’. 
3 Since the above was written Wieland (1916) has discussed Miss Berridge’s and my earlier 
suggestions, and I am quite of his opinion that the above resemblances require further elucidation 
and comparison with the seeds. 
