It may perhaps be unnecessary to remark, that the raphe, or vascular cord of the outer coat, almost universally belongs to that side of the ovulum which is next the placenta.  But it is at least deserving of notice, that the very few apparent exceptions to this rule evidently tend to confirm it.  The most remarkable of these exceptions occur in those species of Euonymus, which, contrary to the usual structure of the genus and family they belong to, have pendulous ovula; and, as I have long since noticed, in the perfect ovula only of Abelia.* In these, and in the other cases in which the raphe is on the outer side, or that most remote from the placenta, the ovula are in reality resupinate; an economy apparently essential to their development.

(Footnote.  Abel’s China page 377.)

The distinct origins and different directions of the nourishing vessels and channel through which fecundation took place in the ovulum, may still be seen in many of those ripe seeds that are winged, and either present their margins to the placenta, as in Proteaceae, or have the plane of the wing at right angles to it, as in several Liliaceae.  These organs are visible also in some of those seeds that have their testa produced at both ends beyond the inner membrane, as Nepenthes; a structure which proves the outer coat of scobiform seeds, as they are called, to be really testa, and not arillus, as it has often been termed.

The importance of distinguishing between the membranes of the unimpregnated ovulum and those of the ripe seed, must be sufficiently evident from what has been already stated.  But this distinction has been necessarily neglected by two classes of observers.  The first consisting of those, among whom are several of the most eminent carpologists, who have regarded the coats of the seed as products of fecundation.  The second of those authors who, professing to give an account of the ovulum itself, have made their observations chiefly, or entirely, on the ripe seed, the coats of which they must consequently have supposed to be formed before impregnation.

The consideration of the arillus, which is of rare occurrence, is never complete, and whose development takes place chiefly after fecundation, might here, perhaps, be entirely omitted.  It is, however, worthy of remark, that in the early stage of the ovulum, this envelope is in general hardly visible even in those cases where, as in Hibbertia volubilis, it attains the greatest size in the ripe seed; nor does it in any case, with which I am acquainted, cover the foramen of the testa until after fecundation.