94 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



circumference of this cup ; the g}mscceum is nearly central.' This 

 last often consists of ten carpels,- five superposed to the sepals, and 

 five alternate with them. The ovary contains two ascending ovules, 

 whose micropyle is at first introrse : the style is bent outwards, and 

 swells at the tip into a small stigraatiferous head, emarginate on the 



Fig. 133. 

 Flower. 



Hihhertia (Burtonia) (jrossular'iafol'ui. 

 Flo. 134. 

 Longitudinal section of flower. 



inside. The stamens, whose anthers are distinctly introrse,' are 

 shorter, as they are the more external ; usually some of these are 

 even sterile, as in J[. vohibUis. The peculiar form of the receptacle 

 produces a somewhat perigynous insertion of the outer whorls, and 

 so gives the flower quite the appearance of several Rosacea', such as 

 Pofentilla or Gemn. The branches of //. f/rossularicpfolia are slender 

 and sarraentose. The petioles of the alternate leaves are dilated 

 at the base. The flowers, really terminal, in time become lateral 

 and leaf-opposed.* 



In these species, and in all those analogous to them,* the stamens 

 occupy the centre of the flower, as we have said above. In those 



' The younger tlie (lower is, the larger is that 

 dome-8haj)ed Bumniit of the receptacle around 

 which the carpels are inserted to fonn a sort of 

 crown, but leaving the very centre quite free. 



- '!"lieru may be more or less than ten. In 

 the latter ca^se the position of the two or three 

 supernumerary carj)els is not constant. 



•* Later the microjiylc is more or less bent 

 outwards. Long before the llowcr expands 

 the hiluni is surrounded by a snnill arillary 

 ring, 



* Hesides the leaf opj^mito the intlorescencc 

 separated from it by a " usurping" buil rapidly 

 developed into a pscudostcni, the tloral |)eduncle 



may bo accouipanied by another leaf ojijxisitc 

 the first, often but little developwl and reiluceil 

 to a bract. This arises not from the bninch but 

 from the peduncle, which mny bciir it either 

 close to its biise as described, or at a variable 

 height, and which sometimes bears several other 

 alternate bracts. 



* These alone form the getuis Hihhertia of 

 I)k Canoolle & Knulu'Hkk, maintaine<l n« a 

 distinct genus by Hhomjmaut, who thinks that 

 " these motlitications in the organization of the 

 nndroreum supply good generic distinctions" 

 (/op. cit.). 



