NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



of stipitate one-seeded berries. The erect seed contains ruminated 

 albumen, and a nearly apical embryo. This genus consists of trees 

 and shrubs from the warm regions of America ; about fifty species 

 have been described.' Tliey have alternate leaves ; and the flowers, 

 solitar}'' or united into few-flowered cymes, are a.xillary, lateral, 

 terminal, or sometimes leaf-opposed. 



In Abcrriiioa" the petals are imbricated, as in Uvaria and Cananga f 

 and the carpels are multiovulate, as in the latter. The style sur- 

 mounting them oiten tapers into a sort of sharp horn, liut the 

 fruit does not consist of a number of stipitate berries, arranged in an 

 innbel as in Cn/iaii(/a ; its structure is usually similar to that of the 

 Jiio/iaa, which we shall study a little later 

 on. It is an ovoid or spherical, fleshy or 

 woody mass, formed b}' the union of all 

 the car])els ; a union which may be so 

 intimate as almost to obliterate all traces 

 of the difterent styles on the surface of the 

 fruit (fig. 235). In others we can dis- 

 tinguish their tips as more or less promi- 

 nent points * and it may happen that the 

 berries, almost woody, are free to the base ; 

 but in that case the common rcceptach? 

 swells into a thick pyriform, or nearl} 

 pyril'orm mass, to support them, the whole always presenting a 

 very peculiar aspect.' The seeds are arillate, with very copious, 

 fleshy, nnuinated alljumen. In one species of tliis genus, described 



Aberemoa {Fusaa) lonf/ijlli 

 Fig. 231. 

 iJiiigrani. 



' WalI'., Ili'p.,\. 82; ii. 7t7; Ami., iv. 72; 

 vii. 52. - DC, l<jc. cil.; Icon. Delt-KS., i. 24, t. 

 «J0.— A. DC. M^m., lO.— A. S. II., Fl. Bran. 

 Mer., i. :5r..— Maiit., Fl. Bran., Anunai:, 25, t. 

 7^12. — Sciii.TL., Llnnaa, ix. 32(1. — I'l.. k 

 TuiANA, Ann. Sc. Nal., stT. 1> xvii. 31. — H. 

 Bs., Adansunia, viii. 20S. 



" Ailtl.. Gulan, i. (ilO, t. 215.— II. Bn.. 

 Adaimunia, viii. 33(i. — Diiguelin A. S. II., Fl. 

 Bras. Mf-riJ., i. 35. t. <>, 7.— A. DC, Mrm., 

 .10.— Km)I.., Ofn., 11. 1722.— n. II.. Oeti. 23. ii. 

 8. -!f. Hn., AdanMiuia, viii. 320.— CV/rrfioyWfi- 

 /«;« SciILTI... Liiinaii, ix. 328. 



' The reicptiic'lc Hoiiu'fiint'K present* tlio minio 

 fciriii iiM ill tliiit ^'eiius; itH KUiiimit iH coiieuvo in 

 iJii'/iuli'i hrniliHiiiii XIaict. TIk' |K.>tiils, dflfii 

 iiisirke<l inside \ty it ilurk "xxti iit the lniNe, iniiv 



be very thick and, as it were, shagreened, like 

 tliose of Asimina triloba ; this is very marked 

 in Anunafurfuiacea A. S. H. {Fl. Bras. Mer.,\. 

 34, t. 6). which i* nil Aberemoa 



* Some 8|)ecics, siu-ii as Anoiia cali/ctna, Sai;. 

 (Ouiaim) have tlie carpels h:inlly dii^tinct in the 

 j;reen fruit, but whin ripe they fall oil" from the 

 conunon receptacle, tojrctlior with the »ee<l that 

 each enelosen, no lonjier surrounded by the 

 pericarp towards its base. 



* This is the case in Duifuet'm lancrolata A. 

 S. II., the typical sj)ecies of the t;enus lJ»<;urti<i. 

 It.s ciirpels are free to the b.i8e. and the ctimmon 

 receptacle itujijKjrtinp them is swollen into u wirt 

 of wootly pear, with one facet corre«i)onding to 

 each uirpd. 



