PHYTOLACCACE.E 



435 



Stem terete, succulent, edges of petiole decurrent, glabrous, 

 purplish-brown ; internodes about 1 cm. long, as thick as the 

 hypocotyl. 



Leaves simple, entire, cauline, alter- 

 nate (first two opposite), exstipulate, 

 petiolate, alternately incurvinerved, gla- 

 brous, subfleshy ; petiole grooved on the 

 upper side. 



Nos. 1 and 2. 5-7 cm. long, 2'5-3 cm. 

 wide, with stout, channelled, reddish 

 petioles 1 cm. long, 2-5 mm. wide, and 

 an ovate-elliptic, acute, entire, mucronate 

 blade. 



FIG. 618. 



Phytolacca abyssinica. 

 Half nat. size. 



POLYGONACE.E. 



Benth. et Hook. Gen. PL iii. 88. 



Fruit and Seed. The ovary is superior, rarely slightly sunk 

 in the receptacle, syncarpous, and consists of two to three, 

 rarely four carpels, trigonous, or compressed, rarely tetra- 

 gonal, one-celled, with a basal, erect, orthotropous ovule ; the 

 ovule is sessile or erect on the apex of a funicle, sometimes 

 pendulous from the recurved apex of an elongated basal 

 funicle. The fruit is nutlike, trigonous, compressed or rarely 

 tetragonal, and indehiscent, clothed by the unchanged or ac- 

 crescent perianth, rarely exserted from it. The pericarp is 

 crustaceous, rarely leathery or hardened. The seed is sessile, 

 erect and orthotropous, rarely stipitate, and conforms to the 

 interior of the fruit ; sometimes it is longitudinally furrowed 

 and three- to six-lobed. The testa is membranous and filled 

 with copious farinaceous endosperm, rarely is the endosperm 

 subfleshy and scanty. The embryo is often more or less ex- 

 centric or lateral, variously curved or straight, sometimes peri- 

 pherical. The cotyledons are flat, narrow or wide, rarely very 

 wide and convolute. The radicle varies considerably in length 

 and is superior or ascending. 



The pistil is tetramerous in Calligonum. The ovule is 

 suspended from a recurved funicle in Leptogonum, Brunnichia, 

 and Antigonon. The perianth completely encloses the fruit, 

 or is solid in Oxygonum, Emex, and Symmeria, fleshy or 



