ANONAOEJE. 



189 



imbricated in the bud, and finally valvate. The inner petals are 

 smaller, and alternate with these, and like them are imbricated 

 when young. When the flower is fully expanded they do 

 not even touch on a level with their contracted bases. • The 

 stamens, very numerous and spirally arranged, are of the shape of 

 an elongated wedge inserted into the receptacle by its apex, and 

 swelling above into a rounded head (figs. 223, 224). The anther 

 consists of two narrow cells applied vertically along this wedge, 

 close to its edges, but nearer the outer face. These extrorse cells 

 dehisce longitudinally.^ The gynseceum consists either of six free 

 carpels superposed to the petals, or more frequently of some other 

 number.^ Each consists of a unilocular ovary, bearing a short 

 recurved style, covered with stigmatic papillie.^ Within the ovary 

 we find a parietal placenta divided by a longitudinal groove" into two 

 vertical lobes, each of which supports a row of anatropous ovules,® 

 with the raphes looking towards those of the other row. The fruits 



' These petals present several peculiarities 

 which we have pointed out in a note entitled Oh- 

 servatiom sur des Petales a Structure Anor male, 

 {Adansonia, vi. 253). The chief are the fle>hy 

 glandular projections of the inner face, secreting 

 a nectar which retains the pollen that falls 

 into the cup of the corolla ; the fact that these 

 papillae contain trachese which proceed from 

 the fibrovascular bundles of the limb, forming 

 short masses, ending in spirally thickened cells 

 placed almost end to end. AVhen young the 

 petals are quite green ; they gradually acquire a 

 brownish tint, which grows deeper day by day, 

 finally becoming a very dark wine purple — a 

 colour often found in the corollas of Anonaceo'. 

 It may be replaced by yellow or orange, or even 

 by brilliant red, rarely, as in U. {Sapranthus) 

 nicaraguensis, by violet, or even nearly blue 

 tints. 



2 The stamens, often formed on this type in 

 the order Aiioiiacece, and, especially in the genus 

 Uvaria, are of the kind which Bextham & 

 Hooker term " Stamina Uvariearum." The 

 sort of inverted truncated pyramid formed by 

 them varies greatly in length at different ages, 

 as does that part of the stamen below the cells, 

 which is called the filament, though not really 

 distinct from the connective. The base becomes 

 early detached, and they fall into the cup of the 

 corolla, but still remain some time attached to 

 the receptacle by bundles of trachea;, which 

 gradually elongate like those supporting the 

 seeds of Magnolia. The pollen in each cell forms 

 like a long necklace of two or three rows of white 



grains united by the very thin debris of the 

 mother-cells. Each grain consists of from two 

 to four (usually three) ellipsoidal granules. These 

 are glabrous, with a minutely areolate outer mem- 

 brane, and are the simple grains. When three 

 of these cohere they occupy the vertices of an 

 equilateral triangle; when four, they form a 

 regular or irregular tetrahedron, as in Brimys. 

 On moistening the pollen the depressions sepa- 

 rating the elementary granules tend to become 

 obliterated. 



^ There are often only three, or sometimes 

 even two, cirpels. 



^ The stigmatiferous part is obovate, white, 

 and very soft. The rounded apex is somewhat 

 refiexed and bathed in a viscid liquid at the time 

 of impregnation. Later on the whole stylar por- 

 tion of the ovary blackens and separates by its 

 now very contracted base, from the apex of the 

 ovary, which remains deep green, and is entirely 

 covered with small white hairs. 



^ This groove is as well marked without as 

 within the carpellary leaf, along the whole length 

 of the internal angle of the ovary, and is prolonged 

 on to the style, its thickened and everted borders 

 forming the stigmatic surface. This also e.xtends 

 a little without the apex of the style. 



® Their number varies greatly. There may be 

 as many as fifteen in each row. They are in- 

 completely anatropous. They have two coats, 

 of which the inner is very remarkable for the 

 long tube wiiich it sends through the exostome; 

 the wall of the endostomic orifice is swollen into 

 a ring at the end of this funnel. 



