Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia Volume II Part 52

(*Footnote. Flinders Voyage volume 2 page 576.)

To this new genus I have given the name of my friend Captain King, who, during his important surveys of the Coasts of New Holland, formed valuable collections in several departments of Natural History, and on all occasions gave every a.s.sistance in his power to Mr. Cunningham, the indefatigable botanist who accompanied him. The name is also intended as a mark of respect to the memory of the late Captain Philip Gidley King, who, as Governor of New South Wales, materially forwarded the objects of Captain Flinders' voyage; and to whose friends.h.i.+p Mr. Ferdinand Bauer and myself were indebted for important a.s.sistance in our pursuits while we remained in that colony.

KINGIA.

ORD. NAT. Junceae prope Dasypogon, Calectasiam et Xerotem.

CHAR. GEN. Perianthium s.e.xpart.i.tum, regulare, glumaceum, persistens.

Stamina s.e.x, fera hypogyna: Antheris basi affixis. Ovarium triloculare, loculis monospermis; ovulis adscendentibus. Stylus 1. Stigma tridentatum.

Pericarpium exsucc.u.m, indehiscens, monospermum, perianthio scarioso cinctum.

Planta facie Xanthorrhoeae elatioris. Caudex arh.o.r.escens cicatricibus basibusve foliorum exasperatus? Folia caudicem terminantia confertissima longissima, figura et dispositione Xanthorrhoeae. Pedunculi numerosi foliis breviores, bracteis v.a.g.i.n.antibus imbricatis tecti, floriferi terminales erecti, mox, caudice parum elongato foliisque novellis productis, laterales, et divaricati vel deflexi, terminati capitulo denso globoso floribus tribracteatis.

Kingia australis. Table C.

DESC. Caudex arborescens erectus simplicissimus cylindraceus, 6-18-pedes altus, cra.s.sitie femoris. Folia caudicem terminantia numerosissima patula, apicibus arcuato-recurvis, lorea, solida, ancipitia apice teretiusculo, novella undique tecta pilis adpressis strictis acutis laevibus, angulis lateralibus et ventrali retrorsum scabris. Pedunculi numerosi teretes 8-12-pollicares cra.s.sitie digiti, vaginis integris brevibus imbricatis hinc in foliolum subulatum productis tecti. Capitulum globosum, floridum magnitudine pruni minoris, fructiferum pomum parvum aequans. Flores undique dense imbricati, tribracteati, sessiles. Bractea exterior lanceolata breve ac.u.minata planiuscula erecta, extus villosa intus glabra, post lapsum fructus persistens: duae laterales angusto-naviculares, acutissimae, carina lateribusque villosis, longitudine fere exterioris, simul c.u.m perianthio fructifero, separatim tamen, dilabentibus. Perianthium s.e.xpart.i.tum regulare subaequale glumaceum: foliola lanceolata acutissima disco nervoso nervis immersis simplicissimis, antica et postica plana, lateralia complicata lateribus inaequalibus, omnia basi subangustata, extus longitudinaliter sed extra medium praecipue villosa, intus glaberrima, aestivatione imbricata.

Stamina s.e.x subaequalia, aestivatione stricta filamentis sensim elongantibus: Filamenta fere hypogyna ipsis basibus foliolorum perianthii quibus opposita leviter adhaerentia, filiformia glabra teretia: Antherae stantes, ante dehiscentiam lineares obtusae filamento paulo latiores, defloratae subulatae vix cra.s.sitie filamenti, loculis parallelo-contiguis connectivo dorsali angusto adnatis, axi ventrali longitudinaliter dehiscentibus, lobulis baseos brevibus acutis subadnatis: Pollen simplex breve ovale laeve. Pistillum: Ovarium sessile disco nullo squamulisve cinctum, lanceolatum trigono-anceps villosum, triloculare, loculis monospermis. Ovula erecta fundo anguli interioris loculi paulo supra basin suam inserta, obovata lenticulari-compressa, aptera: Testa in ipsa basi acutiuscula foramine minuto perforata: Membrana interna respectu testae inversa, hujusce nempe apici lata basi inserta, ovata apice angustato aperto foramen testae obturante: Nucleus cavitate membranae conformis, ejusdem basi insertus, caeterum liber, pulposus solidus, apice acutiusculo laevi aperturam membranae internae attingente. Stylus trigonus strictus, infra villosus, dimidio superiore glabro, alt.i.tudine staminum, iisdem paulo praecocior, exsertus nempe dum illa adhuc inclusa.

Stigmata tria brevissima acuta denticuliformia. Pericarpium exsucc.u.m, indehiscens, villosum, basi styli aristatum, perianthio scarioso et filamentis emarcidis cinctum, abortione monospermum. s.e.m.e.n turgidum obovatum retusum, integumento (testa) simplici membranaceo aqueo-pallido, bine (intus) fere a basi acutiuscula, raphe fusca verticem retusum attingente ibique in chalazam parvam concolorem ampliata. Alb.u.men semini conforme dense carnosum alb.u.m. Embryo monocotyledoneus, aqueo-pallidus subglobosus, extremitate inferiore (radiculari) acuta, in ipsa basi seminis situs, semi-immersus, nec alb.u.mine omnino inclusus.

Table C. figure 1. Kingiae australis pedunculus capitulo florido terminatus; figure 2, capitulum fructiferum; 3, sectio transversalis pedunculi: 4, folium: hae magnitudine naturali, sequentes omnes plus minus auctae sunt; 5, flos; 6, stamen; 7, anthera antice et, 8, eadem postice visa; 9, pistillum; 10, ovarii sectio transversalis; 11, ejusdem portio longitudinaliter secta exhibens ovulum adscendens cavitatem loculi replens; 12, ovulum ita longitudinaliter sectum ut membrana interna solummodo ejusque insertio in apice cavitatis testae visa sit; 13, ovuli sectio longitudinalis profundius ducta exhibens membranam internam et nucleum ex ejusdem basi ortum; 14, bracteae capituli fructiferi; 15, pericarpium perianthio filamentisque persistentibus cinctum; 16, pericarpium perianthio avulso filamentorum basibus relictis; 17, s.e.m.e.n.

OBS. 1.

It remains to be ascertained, whether in this genus a resin is secreted by the bases of the lower leaves, as in Xanthorrhoea; and whether, which is probable, it agrees also in the internal structure of its stem with that genus. In Xanthorrhoea the direction of fibres or vessels of the caudex seems at first sight to resemble in some degree the dicotyledonous arrangement, but in reality much more nearly approaches to that of Dracaena draco, allowance being made for the greater number, and extreme narrowness of leaves, to which all the radiating vessels belong.*

(*Footnote. My knowledge of this remarkable structure of Xanthorrhoea is chiefly derived from specimens of the caudex of one of the larger species of the genus, brought from Port Jackson, and deposited in the collection at the Jardin du Roi of Paris by M. Gaudichaud, the very intelligent botanist who was attached to Captain De Freycinet's voyage.)

OBS. 2.

I have placed Kingia in the natural order Junceae along with Dasypogon, Calectasia and Xerotes, genera peculiar to New Holland, and of which the two former have hitherto been observed only, along with it, on the sh.o.r.es of King George's Sound.

The striking resemblance of Kingia, in caudex and leaves, to Xanthorrhoea, cannot fail to suggest its affinity to that genus also.

Although this affinity is not confirmed by a minute comparison of the parts of fructification, a sufficient agreement is still manifest to strengthen the doubts formerly expressed of the importance of those characters, by which I attempted to define certain families of the great cla.s.s Liliaceae.

In addition, however, to the difference in texture of the outer coat of the seed, and in those other points, on which I then chiefly depended in distinguis.h.i.+ng Junceae from Asphodeleae, a more important character in Junceae exists in the position of the embryo, whose radicle points always to the base of the seed, the external umbilicus being placed in the axis of the inner or ventral surface, either immediately above the base as in Kingia, or towards the middle, as in Xerotes.

OBS. 3.

ON THE STRUCTURE OF THE UNIMPREGNATED OVULUM IN PHAENOGAMOUS PLANTS.

The description which I have given of the Ovulum of Kingia, though essentially different from the accounts. .h.i.therto published of that organ before fecundation, in reality agrees with its ordinary structure in Phaenogamous 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; in tending 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.

(*Footnote. Flinders Voyage 2 page 601, and Linnean Society Transactions 12 page page 136.)

In the Botanical Appendix to the account of Captain Flinders' Voyage, published in 1814, the following description of the Ovulum of Cephalotus follicularis is given: Ovulum er.e.c.t.u.m, intra testam membranaceam continens sacculum pendulum, magnitudine cavitatis testae, 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."*

(*Footnote. Flinders Voyage loc. cit.)

My attention had been first directed to this subject in 1809, in consequence of the opinion I had then formed of the function of the Chalaza in seeds;* and sometime before the publication of the observation now quoted, I had ascertained that in Phaenogamous plants the unimpregnated Ovulum very generally consisted of two concentric membranes, or coats, enclosing a Nucleus of a pulpy cellular texture. I had observed also, that the inner coat had no connexion either with the outer or with the nucleus, except at its origin; and that with relation to the outer coat it was generally inverted, while it always agreed in direction with the nucleus. And, lastly, that at the apex of the nucleus the radicle of the future Embryo would constantly be found.

(*Footnote. Linnean Society Transactions 10 page 35.)

On these grounds my opinion respecting the Embryo of Cephalotus was formed. In describing the Ovulum in this genus, I employed, indeed, the less correct term sacculus, which, however, sufficiently expressed the appearance of the included body in the specimens examined, and served to denote my uncertainty in this case as to the presence of the inner membrane.

I was at that time also aware of the existence, in several plants, of a foramen in the coats of the Ovulum, always distinct from, and in some cases diametrically opposite to the external umbilicus, and which I had in no instance found cohering either directly with the parietes of the Ovarium, or with any process derived from them. But, as I was then unable to detect this foramen in many of the plants which I had examined, I did not attach sufficient importance to it; and in judging of the direction of the Embryo, entirely depended on ascertaining the apex of the nucleus, either directly by dissection, or indirectly from the vascular cord of the outer membrane: the termination of this cord affording a sure indication of the origin of the inner membrane, and consequently of the base of the nucleus, the position of whose apex is therefore readily determined.

In this state of my knowledge the subject was taken up in 1818, by my lamented friend the late Mr. Thomas Smith, who, eminently qualified for an investigation where minute accuracy and great experience in microscopical observation were necessary, succeeded in ascertaining the very general existence of the foramen in the membranes of the Ovulum. But as the foramina in these membranes invariably correspond both with each other and with the apex of the nucleus, a test of the direction of the future Embryo was consequently found nearly as universal, and more obvious than that which I had previously employed.

To determine in what degree this account of the vegetable Ovulum differs from those hitherto given, and in some measure, that its correctness may be judged of, I shall proceed to state the various observations that have been actually made, and the opinions that have been formed on the subject, as briefly as I am able, taking them in chronological order.

In 1672, Grew* describes in the outer coat of the seeds of many Leguminous plants a small foramen, placed opposite to the radicle of the Embryo, which, he adds, is "not a hole casually made, or by the breaking off of the stalk," but formed for purposes afterwards stated to be the aeration of the Embryo, and facilitating the pa.s.sage of its radicle in germination. It appears that he did not consider this foramen in the testa as always present, the functions which he ascribes to it being performed in cases where it is not found, either, according to him, by the hilum itself, or in hard fruits, by an aperture in the stone or sh.e.l.l.

(*Footnote. Anatomy of Veget. begun page 3. Anatomy of Plants page 2.)

In another part of his work* he describes and figures, in the early state of the Ovulum, two coats, of which the outer is the testa; the other, his middle membrane, is evidently what I have termed nucleus, whose origin in the Ovulum of the Apricot he has distinctly represented and described.

(*Footnote. Anatomy of Plants page 210 table 80.)

Malpighi, in 1675,* gives the same account of the early state of the Ovulum; his secundinae externae being the testa, and his chorion the nucleus. He has not, however, distinguished, though he appears to have seen, the foramen of Grew, from the fenestra and fenestella, and these, to which he a.s.signs the same functions, are merely his terms for the hilum.

(*Footnote. Anatome Plant. page 75 et 80.)

In 1694, Camerarius, in his admirable essay on the s.e.xes of plants,*

proposes, as queries merely, various modes in which either the entire grains of pollen, or their particles after bursting, may be supposed to reach and act upon the unimpregnated Ovula, which he had himself carefully observed. With his usual candour, however, he acknowledges his obligation on this subject to Malpighi, to whose more detailed account of them he refers.

(*Footnote. Rudolphi Jacobi Camerarii de s.e.xu plantarum epistola page 8 46 et seq.)

Mr. Samuel Morland, in 1703,* in extending Leeuwenhoek's hypothesis of generation to plants, a.s.sumes the existence of an aperture in the Ovulum, through which it is impregnated. It appears, indeed, that he had not actually observed this aperture before fecundation, but inferred its existence generally and at that period, from having, as he says, "discovered in the seeds of beans, peas, and Phaseoli, just under one end of what we call the eye, a manifest perforation, which leads directly to the seminal plant," and by which he supposes the Embryo to have entered.

This perforation is evidently the foramen discovered in the seeds of Leguminous plants by Grew, of whose observations respecting it he takes no notice, though he quotes him in another part of his subject.

(*Footnote. Philosophical Transactions volume 23 n. 287 page 1474.)

In 1704, Etienne Francois Geoffroy,* and in 1711, his brother Claude Joseph Geoffroy,** in support of the same hypothesis, state the general existence of an aperture in the unimpregnated vegetable Ovulum. It is not, however, probable that these authors had really seen this aperture in the early state of the Ovulum in any case, but rather that they had merely advanced from the observation of Grew, and the conjecture founded on it by Morland, whose hypothesis they adopt without acknowledgment, to the unqualified a.s.sertion of its existence, in all cases. For it is to be remarked, that they take no notice of what had previously been observed or a.s.serted on the more important parts of their subject, while several pa.s.sages are evidently copied, and the whole account of the original state and development of the Ovulum is literally translated from Camerarius' Essay. Nor does the younger Geoffroy mention the earlier publication of his brother, from which his own memoir is in great part manifestly derived.

(*Footnote. Quaestio Medica an Hominis primordia Vermis? in auctoris Tractatu de Materia Medica tome 1 page 123.)

(**Footnote. Mem. de l'Acad. des Sc. de Paris 1711 page 210.)

In 1718; Vaillant,* who rejects the vermicular hypothesis of generation, supposes the influence of the Pollen to consist in an aura, conveyed by the tracheae of the style to the ovula, which it enters, if I rightly understand him, by the funiculus umbilicalis: at the same time he seems to admit the existence of the aperture in the coat.

(*Footnote. Discours sur la Structure des Fleurs page 20.)

In 1745, Needham,* and in 1770, Gleichen,** adopt the hypothesis of Morland, somewhat modified, however, as they consider the particles in the grains of Pollen, not the grains themselves, to be the embryos, and that they enter the ovula by the umbilical cord.