Richard Anthony Salisbury

“ The germination of this plant approaches much nearer to that of Dicotyledones than to that of Monocotyledones, especially if that part which Brotero calls vitellus be considered a radicle. I am, however, inclined to think that it is true albumen, though it does adhere to the embryo; and till we can succeed in getting plenty of perfect seeds, or to catch them in a still earlier stage of germination than the first figure I now send you represents, this point will remain dubious. ”

“ In one capsule, in which the seeds had ceased to swell, apparently from their earliest formation, they adhered together to something like a central placenta: in all the other capsules I found them loose, and suspect the placenta had been absorbed by the liquid remaining in the capsule. A very minute hilum remained always visible, and the three-radiated mark originating there appears to me to be only three stronger ribs of the reticulated cuticle of the seed. ”