232 NATURAL UISTOBY OF PLANTS. 



Mitrephora^ of wliich they have the fiowers. The three petals 

 forming the inner corolla are in fact more or less taper towards the 

 base,- and are united ed«;e to edge by their expanded limbs to form 

 a sort of vault, three-pillared, above the reproductive organs. 

 But these last differ in the following points; the number of 

 stamens is smaller,' often definite, sometimes reduced to six' or 

 nine ;' the connective is not prolonged above the anther-cells into a 

 thick fleshy body ; if extending at all beyond them it only forms a 

 narrow, slightly prominent blade ; each of the carpels, whose number 

 may be reduced to three, contains only a single ovule, or else from 

 two to four. A dozen true species of Orophcca are known, shrubs 

 ^vith alternate leaves, often ill-developed. Their flowers are axillary 

 and grouped into clusters of variable length, often bare at the base. 

 The pedicels are articulated, and often fall early ; the bracts to 

 which they are axillary are often very close to each other, and 

 imbricated. 



The flowers of Ci/mbopetalnm'' are large, closely analogous to those 

 of Mitrep/iora. In fact, in the plant that has served as the prototype 

 to this genus,'' we find that the inner petals have very broad limbs 

 and narrow claws, and shelter the reproductive organs with the 

 expanded part. But the large petals do not cohere together by 

 their limbs, and are thick, coriaceous, and dilated like a sort of 

 enormous spoon, with involute edges and an infiected mucronate 

 apex. The outer petals are short and broad at the base, and 

 even more than in Milrcp/iora approach the sepals in form and 



' Hi,., /w. (17. ; Fl. Jar., Anonac, t. 40-41. ' There are, bowcvcr, sjiocics in which the 



— A. DC, .Wm., 3H, t. 4. — Hook. & Tuoms., nunihi-r of stamens rises Id lilloeii or eighteen. 

 Fl. Intl., I. 11(1. — ZoLL,, Linnctd, xxix. 21(7. •• The (lowers of O. cuii/mbosa (Bocagra cu- 



— 'I'liw., Fnum. PI. Zei//., 8. — MiQ., Fl. Ind.- rt/mhosa Hi..) usnully have this nuniher (tig. 



/?a/., i. J), ii. 2'.) ; Ann. Mus. I.ii</(1. Jial., ii. 22. 2H8). 'I'he tliree largest stamens are sujH.'r- 



(Sevcnilof this author's species are . )////•< ;j//(/ra*.) jK)sed to the sepals. In O. vhliqua, the tlirei' 



— \',v.\)i).. Trans. Linn. Soc, xxv. 21(), t. 21. — large stamens are quite internal to the three 



Wai.I'., ^4««. iv. 54; vii. 59. small ones. In O. coriacea Tiiw., the an«ln>- 



' They usually taper ahruptly in this hasilar leuni also forms two very tlistiiiet trimerous 



jKirtion, which is much elongated. Without 8ei)a- verticils, as it does too in O. zciflanica. 

 rating from one another they may ail lean to one * This numlK>r is olwi'rved in llowers of (i. 



side and leave the rt'prtxhictive organs uncovered. jioli/carpa A. DC (.lA'ffi., 31)). The six outer 



Hutin O.f uhli'/un llooK. A Tuomh. (/V. Ind., stamens are in this cnso the shorter and seem 



i. 112), thf inner jnlals are shorter than the arrangetl in jiairs. 



outer ones, and hardly tajwr towanls the base. " UiiNTU., Journ. Linn, Soc, v. G\). — H. H.. 



In O. zeijlaniea, HooK. &. Thumh. {loc. cil.). Gen., 27 n. 28.— H. 1<N., Adantoma, viii. 2G8, 



the summit of liie imu-r corolla is much 21)8, 342. 



more elongiite<l than in the other sjK-cics, in ? c. hriuidenae Hkxth.. loc. cU. — I'varia 



which it otlen represtmU a nearly horiitontid hnmilimjti* Vki.U)/., Fl. Flnm., v. t. 122. — 



tiihlo. .Maht., Fl. Unm., .inoHiii:, Hit, t. 13, tig. 2. 



