E03ACE2E. 



r,7i 



Cercocarpus fothergiUoides. 



gradually tapering into a loni^ linear neck, which near the mouth 

 suddenly expands into a broad cupule, on whose edges are seated 

 the sepals and stamens. Of the former there are five or six, at first 

 imbricated in the bud.' The 

 latter are from fifteen to thirty 

 in number, an-anged in verticils, 

 each stamen composed of a free 

 filament and an introrse two- 

 celled anther dehiscing lon- 

 gitudinally. The receptacular 

 cupule is lined by a very thin 

 layer of glandular tissue. In 

 the very bottom of the re- 

 ceptacle is inserted the gynse- 

 ceum, whose free ovary tapers 

 above into a slender style, 

 which passes out of the 

 narrow mouth of the recep- 

 tacle to end in a slight stigma- 

 tiferous dilatation. After fer- 

 tilization the gynseceum goes 

 on enlarging, and the style 

 goes on elongating, and then 

 lifts up and carries with it the 

 upper part of the receptacle 



W^hich comes Ofi" (fis^. 436) Flower after rupture 

 ^ of the receptacle. 



from the lower part near the 

 base of the neck, and leaves it persisting like a narrow flask around 

 the fruit. This is a coriaceous achene with an elongated seed, 

 whose straight embryo has its radicle inferior. The persistent style 

 forms a long feathery column, owing to the great development of 

 the hairs which covered it. Of this genus five or six species are 

 known, trees or shrubs from California and Mexico,^ with simple, 

 alternate, thick, petiolate leaves, possessing an entire or dentate 

 blade, with prominent, oblique, parallel ribs, so as often to re- 

 call those of the Hornbeam or Alder ; their petioles have two 



Fig. 436. 



Fig. 437. 



Longitudinal section 



of flower. 



^ They early become valvate, and finally their ' Tokk. & Gr., FL, loc. cit.; Wippl. Exp. 



edges cease to touch. Bot., 164. — Walp., Rep., ii. 45 ; Ann., iv. 665. 



