70 floral structure and affinities of sapotace.e. 



Chrysophyllum oliviforme. Payena sjj. 



(Petals and androecium only). 



^«;sss PPPP 



s s S b b p p p p 



St St St st 



P P P P P 



+ + + + + : : : : 



St 8t St St St St : St : St : st : 



c c c c st 8t St st st St at st 



LUCUMA CURVIFOLIA. 



s s 



s s 



P p 



: p p : p p 



sto sto sto sto sto sto 

 st st st st st st 

 c c c c c c 



We may now consider the affinities of this Order to sorte 

 others. I have traced the floral development in Sipnjjlocos spicata 

 and S. coronata and in the male flowers of Diospyros sylvatica and 

 D. Emhryopteris. The sejDarate inflorescences are racemose or 

 dibotryal in Symplocos ; axillary to each bract is a flower with two 

 sterile bractlets, a quincuncial calyx, five alternate simultaneous 

 petals, five alternipetalous staminal tubercles which become com- 

 pound, and three carpels whose septa imite centrally. In Diospyros 

 the inflorescence is cymose, or a raceme with a terminal flower (Z>. 

 Emhryopteris.) Each flower bears two bractlets, two outer and two 

 inner decussatmg sepals, and four alternisepalous simultaneous 

 petals. The androecium begins with fom* alternipetalous stamens, 

 and then others are formed in centrifugal succession, much as in 

 Thea* Neither of these Orders, then, approaches Sapotacea as 

 closely as StyracecB proper, judging from Payer's study of these. t 

 "We have additional reasons, also, for making Symplocea distinct, as 

 proposed by Miers and others. 



But the Order which midoubtedly comes closest to SapotacecB is 

 MyrsinecB. Reptoyiia has the flowers no less than the habit of 

 Sideroxijlon, and only five ovules; but these are not separated 

 by the (incomplete) septa of Sapotacea;, the seed is cmwed, and the 

 albumen slightly ruminate. I was agreeably sm-prised on tracing 

 the floral evolution of Ardisia solanacea and A. paniculata to find 

 that, though no sign of alternipetalous stamens appears, the 

 antipetalous tubercles (of the fertile stamens) are not formed till 

 the petals have become crescentic, and touch by their edges. Now 

 Pfeffer and others have regarded the petal of PrimulacecB as an 

 appendage to the stamen because of its development fi'om the back 

 of the nascent staminal tubercle. That the opposition of Eichler 



* Figured not over successfully by Payer ' Organogenie,' t. 154. 

 + Op. cit., 536, t. 152. 



