AN0NACEJ3. 255 



Each genus formerly described as possessing axillary flowers only, 

 now includes species whose flowers are terminal.' The flowers are 

 probably always solitary or cymose in this order, and we do not 

 find true racemes. Even the singular fosciated arrangement of the 

 primary peduncles in Artahotrijs does not appear absolutely constant. 

 In many species of other genera we find both axillary and terminal 

 flowers. Often, again, they are lateral, either owing to the phe- 

 nomenon of displacement, above called " usurpation,'"' making them 

 leaf-opposed, or because the floral axes are carried to a very variable 

 height with the branch that bears them. 



It is by the application of the preceding data on the relative value 

 of the variable characters, that we have been led to modify the 

 classifications as yet proposed for the order Jjionacea, and to trace 

 the following, of which we shall here sum up the main points. 



The features which, though quite exceptional, are of primary im- 

 portance according to most botanists — namely, the general conca\4ty 

 of the whole receptacle, and the union of the carpels into a single 

 ovary — will first of all serve to establish the two following series, 

 which should be placed as far as possible apart from the culminating 

 point of the order, and towards the end of a linear series if this alone 

 can be employed. 



Series of the Eupomatie^. — Carpels inserted within a receptacular 

 sac, like the inflorescence of the Fig. Stamens perigynous (or rather 

 epigynous, in the sense commonly given to the word). True perianth 

 replaced by a bract protecting the flower. Outer stamens alone 

 fertile. 



Series of the Monodore.e. — Receptacle convex. Ovary superior 

 unilocular, with numerous j^luriovulate parietal placentas. Fruit 

 with woody walls, like the ovary, polyspermous. Perianth triple. 

 Corolla of variable form, gamopetalous. 



Opposite these aberrant series we place the true AnonacecB, with 

 the floral receptacle at least in part convex, a hypogynous perianth, 

 and a polycarpous gyna3ceum, the ovaries being really free, no 

 matter whether the pieces of the fruit be so or not at a later period. 



1 With reference to this we may especially whose flowers are terminal. This position of the 



cite the genus Eupomatia, which only includes flowers is very exactly figured in Schnitzlein's 



two species. The first that was known has axil- Iconographia (t. I7i) ; while in the text, the 



lary flowers j but this character does not belong axillary insertion of the flowers is given as a 



to the genus since the discovery of J7. Bennettii, generic characteristic. 



