102 i>B. E, SPBUCE ON [Oeonoma, 



ecarinate, while the two lateral ones are sharply (or indeed alato-) 

 carinate ; so that of each c^* flower the face abutting on the included 

 $ flower is hounded by two sharp angles. The sepals are ovate 

 or oblong, slightly imbricated, and chaffy in texture. The corolla 

 is more coriaceous or cartilaginous, yellow or purple in colour, 

 nearly or quite twice the length of the calyx ; and the oval or lan- 

 ceolate valvate petals are united to about midway, being free for 

 a greater length in the d than in the ? flower ; and that is almost 

 the sole difference. The relative length of the calyx and corolla 

 in the male flower has been relied on as a character. I find it at 

 best of little importance ; and it can only be accurately determined 

 in expanded flowers ; for the corolla usually lengthens when 

 about to open, w^hereas the calyx remains unchanged, so that their 

 proportions are rarely manifest in the flower-bud. 



Both c? and $ flowers are subtended by two or more amorphous 

 chafiy bracteoles, truncate, erose, or lobed, and so short as never 

 to emerge from the alveole, 



•Tlie <5 flowers have six stamens, free from the corolla ; but the 

 filaments are united for half their length into a trigonous tube, 

 and are, near the free apex, sharply folded down on themselves, the 

 short inflexed portion bearing two completely separated linear 

 anther-cells, at first deflexed and parallel, but [finally erecting 

 themselves, bursting lengthwise along their outer face, and then 

 becomuig divergent or circinate, in which state they protrude from 

 the corolla. A small tripartite rudimentary pistil is sometimes 

 concealed within the tube. 



In the 5 flowers the stamina! tube is still present, but it is de- 

 stitute of anthers, and either ends abruptly in 3-6 short triangular 

 teeth, or is prolonged into 6 ligulate or finger-like processes 

 (auantherous filaments) which protrude beyond the corolla in a 

 stellate manner. This tube is in all the species equally broad from 

 base to summit ; but it is a common thing for small beetles to de- 

 posit an egg in the nascent ovary ; and as the larva develops, the 

 staminal tube swells below and becomes ovoid or lageniform- 

 Usually it breaks away at the very base, and is carried up, along 

 with the enclosed style, and finally thrown off by the growth of 

 the ovary ; but sometimes it breaks 02" just above the base, leav- 

 ing the ovary seated in a small cup — although this is very rare, 

 and is not constant even in the same species. 



The ovary is normally tricarpellary, the carpels being united only 

 at the very base and sending up a central style ; but much oftener 



