102 WRIGHT : THE GENUS DIOSPYROS 



of this species possesses eight epipetalous staminodes 

 arranged opposite to and alternate with the corolla segments. 

 In the male flowers the number of stamens is large, there 

 being from twelve to sixteen in each flower. When sixteen 

 in number they are usually as eight pairs, the members of 

 each pair being united at the base of the filaments and having 

 the inner stamen smaller than the outer. When only 

 twelve stamens occur these are often arranged as four pairs 

 and four single. 



In each case, whether there are sixteen or twelve, they 

 always form an epipetalous series of eight, each pair being 

 either opposite to or alternate with the corolla segments. 

 The inner stamens are always small, and by their abortion a 

 series of eight would result. This condition, which prevails 

 in many flowers, may represent the transition of the 

 staininal whorl of the female flowers, in which case it would 

 be easy to derive both sexes from a common hermaphrodite 

 flower having a large number of stamens. Such a herma- 

 phrodite flower does exist at the present time in those trees 

 showing the polygamous condition. In the hermaphrodite 

 flowers there may be as many as sixteen perfect stamens 

 arranged as a monadelphous hypogynous ring, or arranged 

 part epipetalous at the base of the corolla and part hypogy- 

 nous. The parts of the pistil and also the seeds of polygam- 

 ous flowers resemble those of true female flowers. If we 

 assume that the primitive type of flower was hermaphrodite, 

 then a very definite abortion in either of two directions 

 must have taken place, some of the trees having, so to speak, 

 allowed the pistil of every flower to entirely abort, while 

 others reduced the number of stamens in each male flower 

 and eventually suffered sterilization of the male sporogenous 

 tissue. Other trees have undergone occasional sterilization 

 of the pistil, resulting in the polygamous state so prevalent 

 at the present time. 



The next most simple case in this group is seen in JX 

 sylvatica. In this species the female flower possesses four 

 epipetalous staminodes disposed so as to alternate with the 



