ANONACEJE. 



205 



organization is the same as in McJodorum, but whose ovaries only 

 contain one or two ovules inserted at a variable height on the inner 

 angle. The corolla often forms a triangular pyramid in the bud and 

 the upper halves of the petals have thick edges, while tlie lower halves 

 alone are hollowed out, and as it were moulded on the sexual organs. 



The limited number of ovules has not been made use of to sepa- 

 rate Kentia from Melodonm proper. Indeed, it could not be, be- 

 cause this character is considered valueless in many other generic 

 groups, and because there is a plant from Guiana whose ovaries only 

 contain one or two ovules,' which we cannot separate from the 

 multiovulate American genus Trigyneia. Between this plant and 

 the pluriovulate Trigyneias we have a very good transition, as we 

 have shown, in the typical species of the section TJnonmtrum^ a 

 Mexican plant with from two to six ovules' in its ovaries. Its 

 young seeds, few in number, are inserted either near the base or at 

 a variable height on the internal angle of the ovary, according as the 

 missing ones are the superior or the inferior ones. 



Among the Old World Unonas also there are species whose 

 carpels are almost constantly biovulate ; they have been termed 

 PolyaltUa.^ and have been erected into a distinct genus. The 

 corolla is of very variable form. Wlien they have but a single 

 ovule they are termed Momon / or Trivaharia^ when in addition to 



Mitrella MiQ., Ann. Mus. Lttgd. Bat., ii. 38. 

 B. H., Qen., 958. In the flowers of Melodorum 

 pisoearpum, for instance, the corolla is nearly 

 globular in the bud. The outer petals are very 

 thick, with very broad borders above, while their 

 bases are, as it were, hollowed out internally to 

 lodge part of the other corolla. The pieces of 

 the latter are narrower, shorter, and thinner, but 

 are also sessile, and their thickened apices project 

 like the keystone of the hanging vault they 

 form in the centre of the flower-bud. Above 

 the anther-cells the stamens only present a some- 

 what elongated prolongation of the connective, 

 obtuse and dilated at the apex. The interior of 

 the ovary cells is full of a thick, gummy juice; 

 and in the inner angle we see two ovules, one 

 inserted a little above the ovary, about halfway 

 up the cell. They arc ascending, with the 

 micropyles looking outwards and downwards, 

 while, owing to a slight obliquity, their chalazal 

 ends are near one another. In the prototype of 

 the section Kentia, that is, Poli/alffiia Kenfii Bl. 

 {Mitrella Kentii MiQ., Ann. Mm. Lugd. Bat., ii. 

 39), by their apposition in the bud the pieces of the 

 outer corolla form a sort of three-sided pyramid. 



1 T.Perrottetii, var. laiweolata H. Bn., Adan- 

 sonia, viii. 179, note 5. 



2 T. Galleottiana H. Bn., op. cit., 181, note 1, 

 268. 



3 Four is the commonest number, echelonned 

 along tlie internal angle of the ovary ; but they 

 are inserted nearer the top or the bottom 

 according as the lower or the upper ones are 

 wanting. 



* Bl., Fl. Jan., Anonac, 70, t. 33, 34 (ex 

 part.).— A. DC, Mem., 39.— Endl., Gen., n. 

 4713 (ex part.).— MiQ., Fl. Ind.-Bat., i. p. ii. 

 43; Ann. Mus. Lugd. Bat., ii. 13. — HooK. & 

 TuoMS., Fl. Ltd., i. 137. — Spach, Suit, a 

 Buffon, vii. 505, 510. — Zoll., Linnaa, xxix. 

 321.— Seem., Fl. Tit., 4, t. iii.— Tnw., Emim. 

 PI. Zeyl, 9.— B. H., Gen., 25, 95fi, n. 17.— 

 Walp., Ann., iv. 68 ; vii. 55. — Bexth., Linn. 

 Trans., xxiii. 170 ; Fl. Austral , i. 51.— H. By., 

 Adansonia, viii. 175, 348. 



* MlQ., Ann. Mus. Lugd. Bat., ii. 15. — B. H., 

 Gen. 956, u. 17. — H. By., Adansonia, viii. 

 337. 



" MlQ., Ann. Mus. Lugd. Bat., ii. 19. — 

 B. H., Gen., loc. cit.—U. Bu., loc. cit. 



