Page:Miscellaneousbot02brow.djvu/372

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356
ON THE STRUCTURE AND

supplement to the description of the plant which I have given in the work referred to.

Akenia membranacea, insecta parva alis conniventibus quodammodòo referentia, perianthio parùm aucto staminibusque persistentibus cincta, iisque sesquilongiora, ferè distincta, ipsâ basi, ubi receptaculo communi inserta, post separationem intùs aperta ibique e membranâ simplici crassiusculâ imberbi nitente formata; suprâ clausa et e duplici membranâ conflata; harum exterior densè barbata, pilis longis, strictis, acutis, deflexis, stylo persistenti brevi aretè reflexo rostrata: membrana seu lamella interior tenuis, intùus quandoque dehiscens.

Semen unicum (rarissimè duo), basi cavitatis membranæ interioris insertum, oblongo-ovale, teres, funiculo umbilicali brevi juxta basin affixum. Integumentum duplex: Testa membranacea laxiuscula, raphe tenui laterali et apice chalaza parvâ insignita: Membrana interior tenuis separabilis. Albumen semini conforme, album, carnosum, subfriabile, e materiâ oleosâ cum granulis minutis mixtâ constans.

Embryo parvus, in basi axeos albuminis, teretiusculus, albus, rectus, albumine 4—5ies brevior. Cotyledones breves, plano-convexæ. Radicula teres, basin seminis attingens.

Receptaculum commune fructûs: tuberculum centrale, parvum, brevissimum, subcylindraceum, cujus lateribus bases apertæ akeniorum adnatæ sunt, apice convexiusculo barbato.


From this description, especially of the embryo, it is evident that Cephalotus must be removed from Rosaceæ, to which it had been referred by M. Labillardière; and also, though not with much confidence, in the account which I published in 1814. M. de Jussieu, indeed, in 1818, 316] proposed to exclude it from Rosaceæ and append it to Crassulaceæ; and the structure of the seed, as well as of the folliculi or akenia, and even their insertion on the minute central receptacle or axis, may seem to confirm the correctness of this approximation.

Cephalotus, however, still appears to me sufficiently remote from every natural order at present established, to entitle it