FLORA OF TROPICAL AFRICA. 



Order LXVIII. UMBELLIPER^, (By Mr. W. P. Hieni.) 



Calyx-tube wholly adnate to the ovary ; calyx-teeth 5, often reduced 

 so as to leave a raised line at the top of the tube, or obsolete. Petals 

 5, inserted at the top of the calyx-tube and alternating with its teetlj, 

 usually inflected at the tip, with impressed midrib and emarginate, 

 sometimes unequal ; connivent or somewhat imbricated in bud, rarely 

 valvate. Stamens 5, inserted at the top of the calyx-tube, and alter- 

 nating- with the petals, glabrous ; filaments slender, distinct, inflected 

 in bud ; anthers versatile, with 2 parallel cells dehiscing longitudinally. 

 Ovary 2-celled ; styles 2 (in abnormal flowers occasionally 3), simple, 

 glabrous, erect when young, diverging afterwards, usually persistent, 

 often dilated at the base (stylopods), distinct from or confluent with an 

 epigynous usually 2-lobed disk, which is placed interior to the stamens. 

 Fruit 2-celled, glabrous or covered with various kinds of hair, usually 

 separating into 2 indehiscent 1-seeded mericarps which are attached 

 near the apex of their faces (or adjacent sides) to a central axis (carpo- 

 phore), which usually splits and allows the mericarps to separate from 

 their medial plane or commissure, or occasionally remains undivided. In 

 some cases the carpophore is absent, and the fruit remains united at the 

 commissure. The mericarps are usually marked by Ave longitudinal 

 lines (primary ridges), 2 of which are lateral^ corresponding to the ex- 

 ternal sides of the commissure, 1 dorsal at the middle of the back, and 

 2 inter mediate. Sometimes 4 more lines {secondary rid//cs) appear on the 

 mericarp alternating with the primary ridges, and even in some genera 

 are more prominent than the latter. The primary ridges are not always 

 equally developed, frequently the lateral ones are dilated into wings, 

 and occasionally the dorsal one, while the rest remain less prominent. 

 In most genera there are longitudinal lines (vitta), receptacles of aro- 

 matic or pungent resinous oil, either solitary or a few together inside, 

 •or interior to the pericarp alternating with the primary ridges, and also 

 some on the commissural faces. Seeds pendulous from the point of at- 

 taehment to the carpophore. Testa thin; albumen hard; embryo, 



VOL. III. B 



