PLORA OF TROPICAL AFRICA. 
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Oxver LXVIII. UMBELLIFER&. (By Mr. W. P. Hiern.) 
Calyx-tube wholly adnate to the ovary; calyx-teeth 5, often reduced 
So as to leave a raised line at the top of the tube, or obsolete. Petals 
5, inserted at the top of the calyx-tube and alternating with its teeth, 
usually inflected at the tip, with impressed midrib and emarginate, 
sometimes unequal; connivent or somewhat imbricated in bud, rarely 
valvate. Stamens 5, inserted at the top of the calyx-tube, and alter- 
nating with the petals, glabrous; filaments slender, distinct, inflected 
in bud; anthers versatile, with 2 parallel cells dehiscing longitudinally. 
Ovary 2-celled ; styles 2 (in abnormal flowers oceasionally 3), simple, 
glabrous, erect when young, diverging afterwards, usually persistent, 
often dilated at the base (stylopods), distinct from or confluent with an 
isynous usually 2-lobed disk, which is placed interior to the stamens. 
ruit 2-celled, elabrous or covered with various kinds of hair, usually 
Separating into 2 indehiscent 1-seeded mericarps which are attached 
near the apex of their faces (or adjacent sides) to a central axis (carpo- 
phore), which usually splits and allows the mericarps to separate from 
their medial plane or commissure, or occasionally remains undivided. In 
Some cases the carpophore is absent, and the fruit remains united at the 
commissure. The mericarps are usually marked by five longitudinal 
lines (primary ridges), 2 of which are lateral, corresponding to the ex- 
ternal sides of the commissure, 1 dorsal at the middle of the back, and 
~ termediate. Sometimes 4 more lines (secondary ridges) appear on the 
mericarp alternating with the primary ridges, and even in some genera 
are more prominent than the latter. ‘The primary ridges are not always 
equally developed, frequently the lateral ones are dilated into wings, 
and occasional y the dorsal one, while the rest remain less prominent. 
n most genera there are longitudinal lines (vitte), receptacles of aro- 
matic or pungent resinous oil, either solitary or a few together inside, 
or interior to the pericarp alternating with the primary ridges, and also 
some on the commissural faces. Seeds pendulous from the point of at- 
eens to the carpophore. Testa thin; albumen hard; embryo, 
L. LI, B 
