128 



DICOTYLEDONS 



the pollen fall. Tlie insects are powdered over and over with 

 the pollen when they move in their little trap. Simultaneously 



the hairs in the narrow tube, which hitherto 

 prevented their escape, begin to shrivel, and 

 allow the insects a passage out. The insects 

 now crawl out of their prison and visit an- 

 other flower. The pollinated flower, however, 

 now covers the entrance into its cavity by 

 laying the tongue-like limb of its perianth 

 right over it, in order to prevent insects from 

 visiting them again. 



The fruit is a six-valved capsule, splitting 



along its partition-walls, so that the six carpels 



come quite free of each other (septicidal). 



The open fruit thus looks like a graceful 



little basket suspended from the climber. 



Tn the American species A. gigantea, which is grown in Indian 



gardens, the perianth is almost large enough to form a bonnet 



for a child. 



An alhed family is the Nyctayinete witli two well-known garden 

 species, namely, the Marvel of Peru, Mirabilis dichotoma, which 

 opens its flowers at four o'clock, and Bougainvillea spectabilis, 

 a spinous climber with inconspicuous flowers surrounded by large 

 carmine bracts often erroneously taken for the petals. 



Fiff. lis.— Fruit of 

 Arislolochia. 



29. The Laurel Family 



(Lauraceae). 



Aromatic trees and shrubs. Leaves exstipulate, entire, gland-dotted. 

 Flowers radial. Perianth tubular, consisting of two series of three 

 leaves. Stamens in two or more whorls of three leaves each, filaments 

 flattened, anthers openin},^ by valves. Ovary of three carpels, one- 

 celled. Fruit a drui)e. 



The Cinnamon Tree {Cinnamomum zeylankum). 



(Plate No. 632.) 

 (Kan. DiUc'ini. M<il. Karuvu. Tani. Lavang-apattiii. Tvl. I.avangapatta. llin. DalcTu.) 



The Cinnamon tree grows wild on the Western Ghats, and is 

 cultivated in Ceylon for its bark which is a very valuable spice. 



