MAGN0LIAGE2E. 



135 



often cultivated in our conservatories. The receptacle is conical 

 at its base, and then elongates into a column of which the lower 

 part is contracted and bears no appendages; above this part the 



Magnolia (^Liriopsis) Figo. 

 Fig. 173. 

 Flower, corolla removed. 



Fig. 174. 

 Diagram.' 



carpels are inserted in a spiral as in other Magnolias, and also con- 

 tain a placenta bearing two descending ovules in the internal angle 

 of the ovary. On the lower part of the receptacle are seen the 

 indefinite stamens with introrse anthers ; and a little lower still the 

 perianth, formed of six imbricated coloured similar leaves, in two 

 trimerous whorls. We must no doubt consider these as petals.- 

 Outside of, or rather below these, there are only two membranous 

 leaves, which in the bud form two sacs fitting one within the other. 

 Each represents the base of a leaf. We may regard it either as 

 a sepal or a bract analogous to that which accompanies the flower 

 of M. grandijlora. The flowers of M. Figo are usually solitary and 

 axillary. However, when we cultivate them, it pretty often hap- 

 pens that the peduncle elongates and bears either several al- 



(Adamonia, vii. 7) that Bentham & Hooker, 

 while retaining Michelia as a distinct genus, yet 

 consider {Gen., 19) the Liriopsls of Spacu as re- 

 ferrible to the genus Magnolia, its characters 

 being " levioris momenti" to entitle it to auto- 

 nomy. 



' In this diagram, the two appendages usually 

 described as forming a calyx, are theoretically 

 represented by the shaded curves outside. They 

 are either two leaf sheaths, or two pairs of stipules 

 uiuted by the petiole ; and it is one of these 

 leaves, most usually reduced to the basilar portion, 



which, in fig. 173, is provided with an abnormal 

 blade. The true perianth, which is a corolla, is 

 represented by the black curves. 



- The less petaloid, external leaves, usually 

 considered as sepals, appear to be those which are 

 wanting here. Hut this absence is of no great 

 value, for they reappear in many Michelias with 

 biovulate carpels, which are, moreover, quite in- 

 separable from this plant in the rest of their 

 organization. Usually the hairy bracts referred 

 to above, and represented in fig. 173, are described 

 as the calyx in M. Figo. 



