ANONACE^. SILVA OF NOB Til AMERICA. 21 



ASIMINA. 



Flowers axillary, solitary or in pairs ; sepals valyate, 3 ; petals 6, in two scries, 

 unequal, imbricated in aestivation ; stamens inserted on the subglobose receptacle, 

 indefinite ; pistils 3 to 15, distinct, many-ovuled. Fruit baccate ; seeds horizontal, flat- 

 tened, inclosed in a pulpy membranaceous aril ; albumen ruminate. 



Asimina, Adanson, Fam. Fl. \\. 365. — Meisner, Ge?i. 4. — OrcMdocarpmn, Miehaux, Fl Bor.-Am. i. 329. 



Gray, Gen. Ill i- 67; Bot. Gazette, xi. IGl. — Benthain Porcelia, Peraoon, Syn. ii. 95, in part. 



& Hooker Gen. i. 24. Uvaria, Endlicher, Gen. 832, in part — Baillon, Hist. PI. i. 

 Anona, Linna;usj Gen. 158, in part. — A. L. de Jussieu, Gen. 281, in part. 



283, in part 



w 



Trees or shrubs, emitting a heavy disagreeable odor -when bruised, "witli fleshy roots, minute cinereo- 

 puhescent caducous bud-scales, and terete slender branches marked with conspicuous leaf-scars. leaves 

 conduplicate in vernation, destitute o£ stipules, ahernate, entire, membranaceous or suh coriaceous, 

 feather-veined, reticulate-venulose, deciduous. Flowers pedunculate, nodding, dingy green, purple or 

 white, proterogynous, bad-smelling. Sepals ovate, smaUer than the petals, green, deciduous. Petals 

 hypogynous, sessUe, ovate or obovate-oblong, reticulately veined, accrescent; the three exterior alternate 

 with "the sepals, spreading; those of the inner row opposite the sepals erect and much smaller than 

 those of the outer row. Stamens hnear-cuneate, densely packed on the receptacle ; filaments shorter 

 than the fleshy connective terminated by a broad truncate glandular tip ; anthers extrorse, the cells 

 ohlong, separate, opening longitudinally. Pistils sessile on the summit of the receptacle, projectmg 

 from the globukr mass of stamens; ovary one-celled ; stigma sessile, unilateral at the tip ; ovules four 

 to twenty, horizontal, two-ranked ^ on the ventral suture, anatropous, the raphe towards the suture. 

 Fruit sessile or stipitate, thick, oval or oblong, smooth, somethnes slightly torulose.^ Seeds m one or 

 two ranks ; testa crustaceo-corlaccous, smooth ; the tegmen adherent to the testa, its n.ombranaceous 

 appendages dividing the corneous albumen nearly to the axis. Embryo minute, next the hilum ; cotyle- 



dons short. . - a i 



The genns Asimina, as no^' known, is confined to eastern North America.' It contams the only 

 species of the great Custard Apple family, ^-idely distributed in both hemispheres, which extends iar 

 outside the tropics. Six species are distinguished: one, A.imina iriloU, the most northern m its 

 range, is a smaU tree ; the others are low shrubs, confined to the south Atlantic and Gulf regions, ilie 

 handsome white flowers of A. grandiflora are the largest of the genus. The fruit in all the shrubbj 



species is small and barely edible. i j. „ j-i,^^^ i,ot-o 



The genus Asimina was separated by Adanson from Anona of Lmn.us Some later u hors 1 a^ 

 united it tith the aUied old-world Uvaria, and the species have also been referred to the Me hno. n 

 Peruvian genus PorceKa. Ashnina is weU characterized, however, by the heterogeneous petals of 



8 Til Cuban plants referred by GrlHel)<icb {Cat. PL Cub. 3) 

 1 The ovules in Asimina parvijlora are indistinctly two-ranked, ree i ■■ ^ _f„„fiv known Their coriaceous nearly 



, . . , . to Asimina are still imperiei^t-^j 

 appearing nearly in a single series. cpnirate them, however, from this genus. 



^ Karely more than three carpeb mature from one flower, often homogeneous petals sepa 



. \ ^ (A. Gray, Bot. Gazette, xi. lOi.J 



only one or two. ^ 



