243 



always enclosed in an enlarged involucre and three-celled with 

 one or two seeds in each loculus, or one-celled and one-seeded 

 by abortion as in Leptolsena. The seeds are pendulous or 

 attached by the sides, with a coriaceous testa and a fleshy or 

 horny endosperm. 



The embryo is straight and embedded in the centre of the 

 endosperm, and has foliaceous, flat or wavy cotyledons. 



The Chlaenacese are small trees, except Ehodolaena, which 

 is a shrubby climber supporting itself on tall trees. The leaves 

 are alternate, generally stipulate, and have a penninerved and 

 reticulate venation. 



MALVACEAE. 



Benth. et Hook. Gen. PI. i. 195. 



Fruit and Seed. The carpels vary from two to many, and 

 in most cases are arranged in a whorl around the torus. They 

 are solitary in a few species of Plagianthus, and in Malope, 

 Palava, and Kitaibelia are very numerous, but confusedly 

 arranged over the torus. The ovules are solitary and ascending 

 in each carpel of the subtribes Malopeae and Eumalveae, solitary 

 and pendulous in Sidese, but vary from two to many in the 

 Abutilese with the exception of Wissadula divergens. They 

 also vary in number in the other tribes. They are very 

 frequently amphitropous, sometimes almost anatropous, and 

 ascending or horizontal with a ventral, lateral, or superior 

 raphe ; in other cases they are pendulous with a superior or 

 dorsal raphe. 



The fruit is dry, rarely berried as in Malvaviscus, and 

 falls away from the axis as indehiscent or dehiscent cocci, or it 

 is a loculicidal capsule dehiscing by valves. There are a few 

 exceptions in which the fruits are one-seeded and indehiscent, 

 as in Cavanillesia and sometimes in Quararibea and Plagi- 

 anthus. 



The seeds are reniform in the more typical Malvaceae; 

 but in other cases are subglobose or obovoid. The testa 

 is generally crustaceous, usually more or less wrinkled, and 



B 2 



