4 M. J. C. DE MELLO AND MR. E. SPRUCE ON PAPAYACEJE. 



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the last solely in the flowers being all ^ , or merely stami- 



niferous, the terminal bisexual flower being either absent or 



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uniformly abortive. All the three fc 



dform of 



Mello 



able to mate others, which follow, on the Jaracatia (O. dodeca- 



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fhyTla^ Veil. = Jaracatia dodecaphylla, A. DC). 



Trees (growing wild In the forests around Campinas) 20-30 feet 

 high, erect, branched at the apex. Leaves digitate of 5-11 

 leaflets. I have not yet been able to verify my supposition 

 that G. 12'phylla is polygamous, like (7. papaya ; for the only 

 c? plant I had within reach was destroyed before it burst 

 into flower; but among the buds that I opened, some had 

 the style beginning to be divided at the point, which leads 

 me to conclude that their ovaries would have been fertile. The 

 style of the $ flower bears five suberect subterete stigmata 

 (not cloven at the apex as in C. papaya) ; and the whole 

 surface (except the dorsal furrow) is stigmatose. A trans- 



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verse section of the ripe fruity made at whatever height^ shoivs 

 always five distinct and complete cells, formed hy five fleshy 

 septa (the axes of the placentae) ; hut the young ovary is 

 5'CeUed below, while above the middle there is only one cell, 



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with five very prominent placentse, the ovules being attached 

 to the faces of the placentse, and not to the angle between 

 them and the wall of the ovary. Hence it appears that the 

 septa of this fruit are in reality the placentse, which grow 

 inwards as the fruit ripens, and finally meet in the centre, 

 forming a spuriously 5-celled fruit *. 



These observations of Senhor Mello show Canca papaya to 

 be trioicous or trimorphous, and render it probable that all 

 the other species occur also under three forms. The second 



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* Senhor Mello supposes that the four species of Jaracatia described in the 

 * Prodromus/ are really reducible to two, J. spinosa and 12-phylla being forms 

 of but one species, and J> 7'phj^lla and Mexicana of another species. So 

 adds that he has never found more than eleven leaflets (5-11) in \2-phyllaf 

 or more than five (3-5) in ^-phylla. Further observation is certainly needed 

 to prove that even J". T-phylla is distinct from J, spinosa. 



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