224 Transactions. — Botany. 



arborea and C. spathttlata, however, it is much larger, and has 

 well-developed linear lobes. Most of the small-leaved species 

 do not possess even the rudiment of a calyx, so far as the male 

 flowers are concerned, but its place is well supplied by the 

 cupular involucel previously alluded to. This involucel is a 

 shallow cup-shaped organ, closely investing the base of the 

 corolla. It is usually four-lobed, two of the lobes being rather 

 larger than the others, but sometimes is quite truncate. It 

 corresponds so closely in shape and position to a calyx as to be 

 readily taken for one, and, in fact, it has often been described 

 as such by authors. But there are suflicient reasons for be- 

 lieving it to be composed of a pair of depauperated leaves and 

 their connecting stipules. In the first place, a similar involucel 

 exists in the female flowers, where the true calyx is always 

 developed ; and in the second, if a sufficient number of speci- 

 mens are examined, examples can be found where the two 

 longer lobes are better developed, and evidently answer to meta- 

 morphosed leaves. In some species, and notably in C. acerosa, 

 it is possible to trace a gradation of forms, from instances 

 where the two longer lobes are hardly distinguishable from 

 ordinary leaves, to cases where they are reduced to minute pro- 

 minences on an otherwise truncate involucel. It should be 

 mentioned, too, that the long lobes of the involucel are always 

 placed crosswise (or decussately) to the pair of undoubted leaves 

 below, which is precisely the position they ought to occupy on 

 the assumption that they are metamorphosed leaves. 



The stamens, which are either four or five in number, have 

 long slender filaments, and rather large oblong anthers, which 

 hang pendulous from the mouth of the corolla, swinging about 

 with every breath of air. The pollen is small, smooth, and 

 elliptical, and is produced in large quantities. 



The female flowers are smaller and narrower than the males, 

 approaching tubular in shape. The calyx tube is adnate to the 

 ovary ; the limb is almost always minute, and either obsoletely 

 3-5-toothed or truncate at the mouth. In C. arborea, C. 

 spatlmlata, and C. linariifolia , however, the limb has compara- 

 tively long linear lobes. The styles are two, very long and 

 slender, being often several times longer than the corolla. They 

 are free to the base, and are covered with stigmatic papilla) for 

 their whole length. The ovary is normally two-celled, with a 

 single ovule in each cell ; but frequently it is three- or four- 

 celled, and more rarely six-celled. In 0. repens it is quite 

 common for the ovary to be four-celled. 



Fruit. — This is a drupe with two (rarely four or six) one- 

 seeded plano-convex pyreues, applied to each other by their flat 

 faces. In shape it varies from oblong or ovoid to globose ; and 

 in size from ^-| inch. The colour is chiefly orange or red ; but 

 some species have a semi-transparent colourless drupe (C. 



