92 



SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



HORACES. 



perfect, gall/ or rarely asexual, often separated by chaffy scales or hairs ; the staminate, gall, and fertile 

 flowers collected on the same receptacle, or the staminate and gall flowers on distinct receptacles, with 

 the perfect and asexual flowers on others, or the staminate and gall flowers on one set of receptacles, 

 and the pistillate on another set. Calyx of the staminate flower usually divided into two to six sepals, 

 or gamopetalous and two to six-lobed, or wanting. Stamens one or two, or rarely three ; filaments 

 short, erect, or rarely elongated, when more than one united throughout their length ; anthers innate 

 or rarely adnate, ovate, broad and subrotund, two-celled, the cells opening longitudinally j wanting in 

 the pistillate and gall flowers. Sepals or lobes of the calyx of the fertile and gall flowers usually 

 narrower than those of the staminate flower. Ovary sessile, erect, or oblique, surmounted by the elon- 

 gated lateral style, crowned with a clavate cylindric peltate, or two-lobed stigma ; wanting in the pistil- 

 late flower ; ovule solitary, suspended from the apex or laterally below the apex of the cell, anatropous. 



Gall flower long-pedicellate, the ovary ovoid 



or globular, crowned 



with a usually abbreviated often 



central style, occupied by the pupa of a hymenopterous insect. Fruit drupaceous, mostly immersed in 

 the thickened succulent receptacle, obovoid or reniform, rarely globular j exocarp thin, mucilaginous \ 



endocarp thin, crustaceous, minutely tuberculate. Seed suspended; testa membranaceous, 

 curved in thin fleshy albumen ; cotyledons equal or unequal, longer than the incumbent radicle. 



Embryo 



2 



Ficus, of which about six hundred species ^ have been described, is widely distributed through the 



1 The term gall flower, proposed by Solms-Laubach {BoL Zeit. flowers in one set of receptacles, the pistillate and asexual flowers in 



GescMechterdiffi 



another ; stamen 1 or very rarely 2 ; leaves tessellate on the lower 



FeigenhdumenY) for certain pistillate flowers of Ficus used by insects surface ; receptacles large and colored. Climbing shrubs. 



as nests in which to deposit their eggs, has been adopted by G. King 

 in his Species of Ficus of the Indo-Malayan and Chinese Countries 



Sycidium. Flowers unisexual, the staminate and gall flowers in 

 one set of receptacles, the pistillate flower in another ; stamen 1 



(Ann. Bat. Gard. Calcutta, i.). As described by Dr. King, the or very rarely 2 ; receptacles generally axillary, more or less sea- 

 gall flowers resemble in many cases the fertile pistillate flowers, brate. Small trees or shrubs, sometimes climbing, rarely epiphytal. 



with a similar calyx, and an ovary and style, although the style is 



COVELLIA, Flowers unisexual ; staminate and gall flowers to- 



more terminal, shorter, straighter, and broadly dilated at the apex, gether in one set of receptacles, the pistillate flowers in another ; 



which is slightly if at all stigmatic. In their later stages gall calyx of the staminate flower divided into three or four sepals ; 



flowers can be distinguished from the fertile fruit by their longer stamen 1 ; calyx of the pistillate flower gamophyllous or rarely of 



pedicels and more globular shape, and by the smooth not tubercu- four or five sepals much shorter than the ovary, or wanting ; recep- 



late pericarp without fleshy covering. Their peculiarities of struc- tacles on long aphyllous branches produced near the base of the 



ture are not believed to be the results of insect visitations, but to stem, often subhypogseus, or on abbreviated branchlets from the 



have led to their selection by insects as their nests. In many stem or large branches, or axillary. Trees or shrubs, not climbing 



species of Ficus, especially in those of the section Urostigma, no or epiphytal. 



external difference between the fertile female and the gall flowers 



EusYCE, Flowers unisexual, the male and gall flowers in one set 



exist, and it is only possible to distinguish the female by opening of receptacles, the pistillate flowers in another ; stamens usually 2, 



rarely 1 or 3 ; receptacles axillary ; leaves alternate, villous or 



the ovaries. 



No investigations of the flowers of the two Florida species of glabrous, deciduous or persistent. Small trees or shrubs, scandent 

 Ficus with reference to their fertilization by insects have been or erect, rarely epiphytal. 



made ; and we have been unable to find in the receptacles pre- 



Neomorphe. Flowers unisexual, the male and gall flowers in 



served in the herbarium any traces of the pupse of insects in the one set of receptacles, the pistillate flowers in another and smaller ; 

 female flowers, which in both species vary in the length of the calyx inflated into three or four membranaceous sepals ; stamens 2 ; 



pedicels, or in the fruit, which is frequently hollow. 



receptacles large, fascicled on abbreviated branchlets from the stem 



2 By G. King {I. c. 1) Ficus is divided into the following sec- or large branches. Trees, usually scandent, not epiphytal. 



tions, several of which were first characterized by Miquel (Ann, 

 Mus, Lugd. Bat. iii. 214, 260) : 



^ Humboldt, Bonpland & Kunth, Nov. Gen. et Spec. ii. 117. 

 Blume, Bijdr. FL Ned. Ind. ii. 436. — Miquel, Ann. Sci. Nat. s4v. 



Pal^omorphe. Staminate and gall flowers in different recep- 3, i, 31 ; Hooker Lond. Jour. Bot. vi. 514 ; vii. 563 ; Verh. Acad. 

 tacles from those containing the pistillate flowers, the staminate Amst. i. Ill (Afrik Vijge-Boom.') ; Martius Fl. BrasiL iv. pt. i. 106 ; 

 with a single stamen and a rudimentary pistil. Small trees or Ann. Mus. Lugd. Bat. iii. 214, 260. — Liebmann, Dansk. Vidensk. 



erect or subscandent shrubs. 



Selsk. Skrift. ser. 3, ii. 319, — Bentham, Fl. Austral, vi. 160. 

 Urostigma. Flowers unisexual ; receptacles usually tribrao- Grisebach, FL Brit. W. Ind. 150. — Seemann, Fl. Vit. 247. 



Franchet & Savatier, Enum. PL Jap. i. 434. 



Baker, FL Maur. Sf 



the same receptacle; stamen 1 or rarely 2; stigmas elongated, Seychel. 283. — KxxvZy Forest Fl. Brit. Burnt, ii. 435. — Parodi, ^nn, 

 usually acute; leaves alternate, entire, coriaceous, subcoriaceous, Soc. Cienc. Argent, v. 87 (Contrib. Fl. Parag. 35). — Boissier, i^. 

 or rarely membranaceous. Usually trees or large climbing shrubs, Orient, iv. 1153. — Hemsley, Bot. Biol. Am. Cent. iii. 143. — G. 



epiphytal in youth. 



/• 



Watson 



Syncecia. Flowers unisexual or asexual, the staminate and gall Acad. xxiv. 77 ; xxvi. 150. 



