Page:Narrative of a survey of the intertropical and western coasts of Australia, Volume 2.djvu/564

 .—On the structure of the in Phænogamous Plants.

The description which I have given of the Ovulum of Kingia, though essentially different from the accounts hitherto published of that organ before fecundation, in reality agrees with its ordinary structure in Phænogamous plants.

I shall endeavour to establish these two points; namely, the agreement of this description with the usual structure of the Ovulum, and its essential difference from the accounts of other observers, as briefly as possible at present; intending hereafter to treat the subject at greater length, and also with other views.

I have formerly more than once adverted to the structure of the Ovulum, chiefly as to the indications it affords, even before fecundation, of the place and direction of the future Embryo. These remarks, however, which were certainly very brief, seem entirely to have escaped the notice of those authors who have since written on the same subject.

In the Botanical Appendix to the Account of Captain Flinders' Voyage, published in 1814, the following decription of the Ovulum of Cephalotus follicularis is given "Ovulum erectum, intra testam membranaceam continens sacculum pendulum, magnitudine cavitatis testæ," and in reference to this description, I have in the same place remarked that, from "the structure of the Ovulum, even in the unimpregnated state, I entertain no doubt that the radicle of the Embryo points to the umbilicus ."

My attention had been first directed to this subject in 1809, in consequence of the opinion I had then formed of