A Contribution to the Embryology of Dilleniaceae

Dilleniaceae is chiefly an australasian and tropical american family with herbs, shrubs and trees. The two arborascent genera like Dillenia and Wormia are present in South India and Ceylon respectively. The former is very common in the western ghats of Mysore State, India, well represented by D. pentagyna and D. indica. Many species of Wormia are present in Ceylon. Gilg and Werdermann (1925) include both the genera under the fourth sub-order of the family Dillenieae, in \u27Die naturlichen Pflanzenfamilien\u27. The earlier literature on the embryology of this family shows that three genera have been investigated so far; Schnarf (1924) on Hibbertia dentata, Paetow (1931) on Wormia Suffruticosa, and Swamy and Periasamy (1955) on Acrotrema arnottianum. The present investigation deals with the gametophyte development of Wormia burbidgei Hook, and Dillenia pentagyna Roxb. About the latter a brief note has already been published by Nagaraja Rao (1955)