AN0NACE2E. 241 



then free, valvate in a3stivation. Tlie three outer ones, long and 

 narrow, alternating with the sepals, and, like them, with undulate 

 edges, are reflexed in the completely expanded flower, while the 

 three inner ones, far shorter and contracted at the base, approach 

 one anotber above by their broadened, almost sagittate limbs. The 

 stamens, inserted in a spiral on the sides of the spherical dilatation 

 of the receptacle, are indefinite, free, each composed of a nearly sessile 

 anther, with two linear adnate extrorse cells dehiscing longitudinally 

 and surmounted by a truncate dilatation of the top of the con- 

 nective. The ovary, which occupies the summit of the receptacle, is 

 surmounted by a style that dilates rapidly, like that of a Poppy, into 

 a large circular stigmatiferous plate with lacerated edges. The ovary 

 contains only one cell, with numerous parietal placentas, bearing 

 indefinite horizontal or ascending anatropous ovules on rather long 

 funicles.* The fruit is an enormous berry, which finally becomes 

 spherical and woody. It contains an indefinite number of seeds 

 embedded in the thick pulp. The seed-coats, ruminated albumen, 

 and small embryo here present the same characters as in most other 



M. Mt/risfica is a tree from tropical Africa, transported to the 

 Antilles by negroes.^ Its leaves are alternate, exstipulate ; and the 

 long peduncles of the large flowers spring from the side of the 

 young branches of the season, opposite, or nearly opposite, the leaves. 

 In an alHed species, M. temtifolia^ the flower also springs from a 

 branch of its year, but it stands alone, far below the first of the leaves 

 on this young branch. Later on the peduncle elongates and grows 

 thick, and " it is the young branch which, pushed aside and small in 

 proportion, appears to spring from the side of the peduncle." In 

 this species the sepals cohere at the base, and the outer petals are 

 ovate-lanceolate. The corolla has a similar form in a Zanzibar 

 species which we have described^ under the name of M. Graudidieri . 

 Its outer petals are undulate, and the inner ones are much shorter, 

 with a nearty sagittate limb and a contracted base. But this species 

 is not glabrous like those from Western Africa. The difl'erences of 



' These ovules at first appear placed back to servations of travellers who have met with the 



back hi two parallel rows on each placenta. plant native in the forests of Guinea. 



2 It is known that Rouebt Bkown was the ^ Benth., JoMm. ijn». iSoc, ?oc. ct7. — H. Bn., 



first to give this opinion, whitjh long appeared op. cif., 300. 

 very improbable, but is now justified by the ob- * Adansonia, loc. cit., 301, note 1. 



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