. The natural history of plants. Botany. MYBI8TI0AGH2E. 493 also, the female flowers only possess a gynseceum within the perianth (figs. 302, 303). This is gamosepalous in the females, with three valvate teeth reflexed on anthesis; it is a little better developed than in the males. The gynseceum is free superior, formed of a conical ovary, tapering above and traversed by a longitudinal groove down the placentary edge. The two lips of this groove become thickened towards the top, and are everted and covered with stig- matic papillae. The ovary contains only a single cell, with a sub- Myristica
. The natural history of plants. Botany. MYBI8TI0AGH2E. 493 also, the female flowers only possess a gynseceum within the perianth (figs. 302, 303). This is gamosepalous in the females, with three valvate teeth reflexed on anthesis; it is a little better developed than in the males. The gynseceum is free superior, formed of a conical ovary, tapering above and traversed by a longitudinal groove down the placentary edge. The two lips of this groove become thickened towards the top, and are everted and covered with stig- matic papillae. The ovary contains only a single cell, with a sub- Myristica Pia. 299. Fio. 300. Pia. 301. Fia. 302. Male flower, Male flower, Longitudinal sec- Female flower (^). perianth re- Diagram. tion of male moved (f). flower (f). Fia. 303. Longitudinal section of female flower. basilar placenta bearing a solitary suberect anatropous ovule; the micropyle looks downwards, away from the grooved side of the ovary.' The fruit (fig. 298) is a berry often pear-shaped, opening lengthwise when ripe,^ to free a large ascending seed. This is sur- rounded by a fleshy coloured aril, more or less laciniate and rising to a variable distance between the pericarp and seed, well known under the name of mace (Fr,, «^am; figs. 305, 306^). The seed-coats ' It has two coats. The nucleus is imme- diately enveloped in a bottle-shaped secundine with a thick neck traversed by a slender canal; its truncate mouth does not protrude through the exostome. This last, placed some way above the hilum, is circular or elliptical, with thin edges (see Adansonia, v. 178). ^ It opens from above downwards, along the dorsal and ventral sutures, so that it finally forms two distinct valves. ^ The much discussed nature and origin of this aril have been the subject of many works; it is one of the most contested points in botany. The older botanists confined themselves to stating that mace was an arillary product of the nutmeg-seed. It was Pianchon who, in 1844, in his Memoire
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectbotany, bookyear1871
