ANON ACE JE. 



233 



colour. They are, moreover, valvate in the bud, like the sepals, 

 which become more or less rctlexed on the peduncle. The recep- 

 tacle is dome-shaped, and bears a large number of stamens (of 

 Uvaria), inserted in a very regular spiral. The indefinite carpels' 

 consist of a pluriovulate ovary, with a short style dilated at the 

 summit into a thick stigmatiferous head. The fruit is formed of 

 a variable number of carpels, somewhat like little pods divided 

 incompletely by oblique inflections of the pericarp into as many 

 compartments as there are seeds. These are arillate, and in other 



Cifmhopetaium penduliflorum? 

 Fig. 289. 

 Flower. 



respects like those of most Jjionacea. It is said that the carpels 

 dehisce more or less completely when ripe.^ 



The characters presented by the petals, so well marked in this plant, 

 become somewhat less decided in other species which we have 

 referred to the same genus, such as U/iona obtusifora DC.^ Plere 

 there is much less difference in size and form between the outer 

 petals and the inner ones, the former being much larger and oval 



' In some flowers they appear absent ; these 

 plants may then becoiue polygamous like some 

 species of Mitrephora. 



" H. Bn., Adamonia, viii. 268. — Uvaria pen- 

 dulijlora Moc. & Sess., Fl. Mex., ined., ex Dun., 

 Mon., 100, t. 28 ; DC, Sysl., i. 487 ; Prvdr., 

 i. 89, n. 3. 



' " Baccee stipitatce ollongcp, sith pressione 

 sape apertce" (B. H., Ge)>., luc cif.}. We have 

 in fact seen the fruits open towards the apex for 

 a certain distance along the ventral angle ; but 

 it is possible that this rupture only occurs in tiic 

 herbarium. 



■» Si/it. Veff., i. 487 ; Prodi:, i. 89, n. 7. 



