vs ser eeees = peso itleetiany eee techie _ Feces Gn ae 
SS z E ene See etecireei nan. em 
te ree nina neamggaaNlina eae eset aoe 
SS ee reeeainimareies ———— eee 
= — Oe brig 5 ¢ 
ET 
cnbamemuatimeinmnenne a... 
ee Sareea nln 
SSS 
Sain 
26 DR. J. D. HOOKER ON WELWITSCHIA, 
the terminal ones invariably subtended a minute papilla, which is the naked nucleus of 
the ovule; lower down, in the same cones, [ find this nucleus surrounded at the base 
by a compressed thickened ring, rising into shoulders on each side (Plate IX. figs, 2 & 3), 
which ring is the first appearance of the perianth. 
In the next stage (fig. 4) the perianth is dilated upwards, and, by the time that the 
integument of the nucleus appears, the perianth is saucer-shaped (fig. 5); and becoming 
When about 3}; inch long, the orifice dilates and becomes obscurely 2-lobed (fig. 7), 
the lobes being right and left, or parallel to the scale of the cone. At this period the 
nucleus is often surmounted by its integument, but as often it remains exposed till a 
considerably later period. The perianth ‘next dilates above the base, and contracts at 
the nucleus (Plate VIII. figs. 6,7,8). When to 3 inch long (Plate VIII. figs. 9 & 10), the 
perianth is flattened, membranous, and translucent, with a flagon-shaped cavity, is much 
dilated below, and has a bifid dilated mouth (fig. 11), which opens towards the scale. 
The nascent female flower is at first formed in close contiguity to the base of the scale, 
but on the rachis of the cone, and is sometimes torn away with the subtending scale, and 
base; the inner bundle of each pair runs to the base of the ovule, the outer traverses 
the walls of the perianth, 
Pericarp.—tThe persistent pericarp, enclosing the ripe seed of Welwitschia (Plate VIL. 
figs. 2 & 3), consists of a central cavity surrounded by a | i 
wing of exquisitely beautiful structure and appearance, 
or pyriform, suddenly contracted above into a narrow traversed 
process of the ovular integument, and below into a 
