ROSACEA. 



»53 



3farffi/ricar}ms selosus. 



wing extending the whole length of the fruit. But in Marf/yricarpus 



proper they are only developed under the base of the sepals, forming 



some little unequal obtuse prickles. All the rest of the receptacle 



gradually becomes thick and quite fleshy, 



to form a nearly globular indusium around 



the true fruit. This is an achene with a 



hard, thick pericarp, and a suspended seed 



with a fleshy exalbuminous embryo. The 



genus consists of stiff, bushy shrubs from 



the Andine regions of South America,' with 



alternate leaves dilated at the base into a 



petiole, which forms an incomplete sheath, 



and is continuous at the edges with two 



broad membranous stipules. The blade of 



the leaf is either well-developed and im- 



paripinnate, or to a great extent abortive, 



the hardened midrib being transformed into 



a spine. The flowers are inconspicuous, 



solitary, axillary, and sessile. 



Cliffortia' (figs. 411,412) represents the 

 most reduced type found in the order Ro- 

 sacea. The flowers are dioecious, with either 

 only stamens or only a gynaeceum in a simple 

 floral envelope. In the male flower (fig. 

 411) the receptacle is not concave ; it is the 

 unmodified apex of a short axis, bearing a 

 calyx of three or four imbricate leaves. 

 The stamens are indefinite. Their filaments, inserted in the 

 centre of the flower, are unequal free and slender, bent on them- 

 selves in the bud. The anthers are two-celled, often didymous, 

 dehiscing by two introrse or marginal clefts. The female flower 

 has a similar calyx, but its sepals are inserted on the edges of the 

 narrow orifice of a receptacle like that of Acana, Margyricarpus, or 



Fig. 409. 

 Florifcrous branch. 



1 H. B. K., l\ox). Gen. et Spec, vi. 180.— 

 W., Nov. Act. Nat. Cur., iii. 437.— C. Gay, Fl. 

 Cliil, ii. 278, 280. 



- Cliffortia L., Gen., n. 1133 ; Eort. Clif- 

 fort., t. 30, 31.— Ada>s., Fam. des PI., ii. 293. 

 —J., Gen., 337.— Lamk.. Diet., ii. 46 ; Suppl., 



VOL. I. 



ii. 299 ; ///., t. 827.— DC, Prodr., ii. 595.— 

 ExDL., Gen., n. G379 — SpaCH, Suit, a Buffon, 

 i. 489.— 15. H. Gen., 625, n. bd.—Morilandia 

 Neck., Ekm., n. 766. — Nenax G^btk., Fnict., 

 i. 165, t. 32.— Monographidinm Peesl., Epimel., 

 202. 



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