MALriGIIIACE/E 291 



MALPIGHIACE^E. 



Benth. et Hook. Gen. PI. i. 247. 



Fruit and Seed. The ovary is superior, generally consisting 

 of three carpels, rarely two or four, more or less connate into a 

 three-celled ovary, or apocarpous, with one ovule in each cell ; 

 the ovule is almost orthotropous or semianatropous in Hiptage 

 Madablota, ascending from a broad pendulous funicle, and 

 straight or curved ; the raphe is on the ventral aspect, and the 

 micropyle is superior. The mature carpels are three in num- 

 ber or fewer, one-seeded and coherent into a fleshy or woody 

 drupe, distinct and separating into usually winged samaras, 

 rarely two-valved. The seed is obliquely suspended from the 

 inner angle of each cell, and is exalbuminous. The seed-coat 

 is double, both coats being as a rule membranous. The embryo 

 varies in being straight, curved, or hooked, very rarely cir- 

 cinate ; and the cotyledons are flat, or fleshy and thick, filling 

 the seed, and often unequal. The radicle is short, superior, and 

 the plumule is but little developed. 



The seeds may be roughly classified into six groups ac- 

 cording to the form of the embryo, which is exceedingly 

 variable. Those characteristics however by which the groups 

 are distinguished are not constant, while in many cases two or 

 three of them apply to one genus, or to different species of a 

 genus, so that the groups frequently overlap one another. The 

 embryo is straight in Bunchosia, Aspidopterys, Jubelina, and 

 some species of Malpighia. More often however the cotyledons 

 are more or less curved, as in Lasiocarpus, Verrucularia, 

 Acridocarpus, Eyssopterys, Peixotoa, Aspicarpa, Camarea, 

 Janusia, Schwannia, and in some species of Hiptage, while in 

 Banisteria they may be straight, incurved, or inflexed. This 

 forms a transition to the next group, in which the cotyledons are 

 inflexed or uncinate about the middle or towards the apex. 

 Some of the species of Malpighia, Tristellateia, and Tetrapterys 

 also have their cotyledons inflexed at the apex. The species 

 generally of Diacidia, Clonodia, Lophanthera, Ptilochseta, 

 Triaspis, Triopterys, Hiraea, and Diploptcrys have the cotyle- 



c 2 



