THE DEHISCENCE OF ANTHERS BY APICAL PORES. 179 



in longitudinal 



one or may be increased down the sides 

 slits. The flowers are often very large and conspicuous; 

 Saurauia (with about 98 species of tropical Asia and 

 America, rare in Brazil and Guiana) has the anthers turned 

 outward in the bud, but reversed and erect at the time of 

 flowering, each of the two short, sometimes somewhat 

 divergent locules opening by large pores or, more rarely, 

 by longitudinal slits. 



stamens 



t 



Dilleniaceae, but in many forms a marked tendency to 

 numerical reduction is observable, as is well seen in Hibber- 

 iia, but from the data available I am unable to draw any 

 definite conclusions as to the relation between the number 

 of elements in the androecium and the method of dehis- 

 cence. The forms of filament and anther are quite 

 various. Apical dehiscence is confined almost exclusively 

 to the elongate, basifixed anther. With the exception of 

 one genus, the apically dehiscent forms all occur in the 



in the exception, 



d 



Saw 



and assume a more or less erect position at the time of 



flowering. 



Elaeocarpaceae. 



An important difference between the Elaeocarpaceae and 

 the preceding family is found in the gynoecium. In the 

 Elaeocarpaceae, the pistil is simple and filiform with only 

 a possible indication of the compound nature of the ovary 

 in the slightly lobed stigma of some forms. 



Elaeocarpus (over 100 species of tropical Africa, Asia, 

 Australia, the Pacific Islands, New Caledonia and New 

 Zealand), Sloanea (50 species in the tropics of both hem- 

 ispheres), Vallea (3 species in the mountains of New 

 Granada and Peru) and Aristotelia ( 7 species, 3 in Australia, 

 3 in New Zealand, 1 in Chile) have campanulate or more or 

 less patent, often highly colored and fringed perianth seg- 

 ments; stamens indefinite in number; anthers linear, basi- 





