COMBRETACE^E 523 



No. 1. Sometimes small, subterranean and colourless, or 

 aerial and green, or the first as well as the second is foliaceous, 

 small and ovate. 



No. 3. Generally considerably longer and ovate- elliptic, acuminate. 



Nos. 4 and 5. In strong seedlings elliptic and generally acumi- 

 nate, but with an obtuse apex. Much longer than the preceding. 



MYRTACE^E. 



Benth. et Hook. Gen. PL i. 690. 



Fruit and Seed.- The syncarpous ovary is entirely sunk in 

 the receptacle, rarely half or wholly superior with the exception 

 of its broad base. The exceptions are Fropiera with a wholly 

 superior ovary, while it is also almost superior in several species 

 of Tristania, Hypocalymna, Basckea, and Xanthostemon. It is 

 most often two- to many-celled with axile placentas, but some - 

 times it is one-celled owing to an imperfect dissepiment, with 

 a basal placenta, or the latter is filiform and fixed to the base 

 and apex of the cavity. Very rarely is it one-celled with two 

 parietal placentas. The ovules are campylotropous or anatro- 

 pous, and vary from two to many, and are arranged in two or 

 more series on each placenta. 



The fruit is sometimes capsular, dehiscing vertically by 

 as many valves as there are cells. In other cases it is dry, 

 baccate or drupaceous, one- or many-seeded and indehiscent. 

 The seeds vary greatly in size and form even in the same genus. 

 They have sometimes a membranous (as in the case of Eucalyp- 

 tus), crustaceous, fleshy, or woody testa. Endosperm is nearly 

 always absent, or when present occupies a small portion of the 

 seed close to the hilum ; it is said to be copious in a few cases. 

 The embryo is straight, curved in a circinate manner, or spiral ; 

 sometimes it is thick and fleshy with minute cotyledons at 

 the smaller end of the seed, or hooked or almost absent. In 

 other cases the cotyledons are foliaceous, longer than the 

 radicle, sometimes coiled round it ; and sometimes they are 

 fleshy, flat, twisted, plaited, or thick and free, or soldered 

 together in a solid mass. 



An exceptional case occurs in the genus Feijoa which 



