RHIZOPHORACES. SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 13 
RHIZOPHORA. 
FLOWERS perfect ; calyx 4-parted, the lobes valvate in estivation ; petals 4, indupli- 
cate in estivation; stamens 8 to 12; ovary partly inferior, 2-celled; ovules 2 in each 
cell, suspended. Fruit a l-celled, 1-seeded berry, perforated at the apex by the ger- 
minating embryo. Leaves opposite, ovate or elliptical, entire, stipulate, persistent. 
Rhizophora, Linneus, Gen. 137 (1737).— A. L. de Jus- | 1185.— Bentham & Hooker, Gen. i. 678. — Baillon, Hist. 
sieu, Gen. 213. — Meisner, Gen. 119. — Endlicher, Gen. PI. vi. 299. 
Mangle, Adanson, Fam. Pl. ii. 445 (1763). 
Trees, with stout terete pithy branchlets, thick astringent bark, and adventitious fleshy roots. 
Leaves opposite, ovate or elliptical, entire, thick and coriaceous, glabrous, petiolate, persistent ; stipules 
elongated, acuminate, interpetiolar, infolding the bud, caducous. Flower-clusters pedunculate, axillary, 
dichotomously or trichotomously branched, the base of the branches surrounded by an involucre of two 
ovate three-lobed persistent bracts, or one-flowered. Flowers yellow or creamy white, sessile or pedi- 
cellate, bibracteolate, the bractlets united into an involucral cup. Calyx four-lobed, the lobes acute, 
coriaceous, ribbed on the inner surface and thickened on the margins, two or three times longer than 
the turbinate-globose tube, reflexed at maturity, persistent. Petals alternate with and longer than the 
lobes of the calyx, inserted on a fleshy disk-like ring in the mouth of the calyx-tube, volute on the 
margins and coated on the inner surface with long pale hairs, or flat and naked, caducous. Stamens’ 
eight, four episepalous and four slightly longer, epipetalous, or eleven or twelve; filaments short or 
wanting ; anthers attached at the base, introrse, triangular in section, elongated, connivent, areolate, 
their membranous coat splitting by two longitudinal slits united near the apex and disclosing numerous 
* Ovary partly inferior, conical, 
spherical cavities covering their inner face and filled with pollen grains. 
two-celled, contracted into two subulate spreading styles stigmatic at the apex; ovules two in each 
cell, suspended from its apex, collateral, anatropous ; raphe ventral, micropyle superior. Fruit a conical 
coriaceous berry surrounded by the reflexed persistent calyx-lobes. Seed usually solitary by abortion, 
suspended, and germinating in the fruit before falling; the apex surrounded by a thin albuminous 
micropylar cup-like aril,’ testa thick and fleshy. Embryo at first surrounded by a thin layer of albu- 
men; cotyledons conferruminate, dark purple ; radicle elongated, clavate, perforating in its development 
the apex of the fruit, and when fully grown separating from the narrow exserted woody tube inclosing 
the plumule and developed from the cotyledons after the ripening of the fruit.’ 
Rhizophora is widely and generally distributed on the shores of tidal marshes in-the tropical 
regions of the two worlds. Three species are distinguished : one is American ; a second, Rhizophora 
1 Griffith, Trans. Med. & Phys. Soc. Calc. viii. 1.— Baillon, Bull. made by the spreading back of the membrane on the outer sides of 
Soc. Linn. Paris, i. 58 ; Hist. Pl. vi. 286. the slits. 
2 By the splitting of the membranous coat of the anther a trian- 8 Tulasne, Ann. Sci. Nat. sér. 4, vi. 110. — Warming, Engler Bot. 
gular valve is formed which is attached by the base and in opening Jahrb. iv. 530. 
falls forward, while the two lateral wings on the open anther are 4 Petit-Thouars, Desvaux Jour. Bot. ii. 32.— Griffith, Votul. iv. 
662. 
