220 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 



small, regular, hermaphrodite or unisexual, with the 

 parts in twos or fours. In the hermaphrodite and 

 female flowers the perianth is tubular, as in the 

 Spurge Laurel group, two- to six-cleft, the lobes 

 overlapping or valvate in bud. The perianth in 

 this case may be fused with the ovary. In the male 

 flowers there are two to four lobes united below. 

 The male flowers are in catkins, the fertile ones 

 solitary. The disc, if present, lines the calyx-tube. 

 The stamens are of the same number in the fertile 

 flowers, or in the male flowers twice as many, as the 

 perianth-lobes. They are stalkless on the throat of 

 the perianth. In the fertile flowers the stamens are 

 opposite the perianth-lobes. The anthers are basi- 

 fixed or dorsifixed. The ovary is one-celled, free, stalk- 

 less, and enclosed in the thickened base of the calyx. 

 The style is slender and short. The stigma is awl- 

 shaped, lateral. There is a single erect, basal ovule, 

 which is anatropous. The fruit is a pseudo-drupe, 

 and does not open, being enclosed in the calyx-tube. 

 The seeds have little or no endosperm, and are 

 ascending. The embryo, which is axile, is straight. 

 The cotyledons are thick. 



The flowers are pollinated by the wind, the plants 

 being dioecious, with stamens and pistil on separate 

 plants. 



The fruit is dispersed by birds. 



The Sea Buckthorn has been much planted on 

 the coast, serving as a means of protection against 

 the inroads of the sea. 



