BIGNOXIACE.E 



345 



ling, exstipulate, shortly petiolate or almost sessile, alternately in- 

 curvinerved, deep green above, paler beneath, with the nerves 

 sunk on both surfaces, ob- 

 scurely reticulate, glabrous ; 

 petiole very short or almost 

 absent, grooved on the upper 

 side by the decurrent margin 

 of the leaf. 



First pair of leaves obovate- 

 elliptic, tapered to the base, 

 obtuse and tipped with a small 

 mucro. 



Ultimate leaves irregularly 

 grouped or fascicled, lanceolate, 

 oblong-lanceolate, linear-lan- 

 ceolate or elliptic-lanceolate, 

 very variable in length, gene- 

 rally much tapered to both 

 ends, obtuse, alternately penni- 

 nerved, with the nerves in- 

 curved and giving off recurved 

 branches, forming an arch, and 

 in all cases uniting with one another, and anastomosing some distance 

 within the margin, much punctate beneath, decurrent almost to the 

 very base, reducing the petiole to its much thickened base. 



FIG. 575. Cre-scentia Cujete. 

 Nat. size. 



FED ALINED 



Benth. et Hook. Gen. PL ii. 1054. 



Fruit and Seed. The ovary is superior, sometimes one- 

 celled with two parietal placentas each divided into two lamellae 

 projecting into the cavity ; sometimes two- rarely three- or 

 four-celled with the cells undivided, or in other cases sub- 

 divided by spurious septa or ingrowths from the wall. The 

 ovules are solitary in each cell or numerous and superposed 

 in a single series, horizontal, ascending, pendulous, or erect 

 from the base and anatropous. The fruit is capsular, nut- 

 like, or more rarely subdrupaceous, with a fleshy endocarp. 

 The endocarp as well as the placentas or even the whole 



