382 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



surmounted by a style which is stigmatiferous, but scarcely dilated, 

 at the tip. In the ventral an^^^le of each ovary is a placenta bearing 

 two collateral, descending, incompletely anatropous ovules, with 

 their micropyles upwards and outwards. The multiple fruit con- 

 sists of five drupes or fewer,' with a membranous epicarp and a thin 

 mesocarp, at first fleshy, later floury and friable. The stone is 

 hard and one-seeded. AVithin the membranous seed-coats is con- 

 tained a large fleshy embryo with its radicle superior, surrounded 

 by a scanty albumen. The only known species of this genus is B. 

 kerrioidf'S','^ a shrub possessing opposite, petiolate, simple leaves, with 

 two lateral stipules, just like those of Krrria. The flowers are 

 solitary, terminal, and pedunculate. 



Ncviiisin^ is a shrub with apetalous hermaphrodite flowers. The 

 receptacle forms a shallow cup, lined by glandular tissue, and bears 

 on its edges a calyx of five large dentate leafy sepals, imbricated 

 in the bud. The stamens are very numerous, inserted within the 

 calyx, and analogous to those of Kerria and Bhodofypos. The gynae- 

 ceum consists of four free sessile carpels,' inserted towards the 

 bottom of the receptacle, and each formed of a one-celled ovary, 

 surmounted by a slender incurved style, nearly terminal, and stig- 

 matiferous along the whole of its internal angle. Within the ventral 

 angle of the ovary is a single descending nearly anatropous ovule, 

 whose micropyle looks upwards and outwards. The fruit consists 

 of one or more drupes with thin mesocarps, surrounded by the 

 accrescent calyx. The embryo has a superior inflexed radicle and 

 flattened cotyledons, surrounded by fleshy albumen. N. nlabanicnsiii' 

 is the only known species of this genus, a glabrous shrub with the 

 habit of several species of Spira'a. It has alternate simple' loaves 

 with two little lateral stipules. Its flowers' are on rather long 

 slender pedicels, forming, as it were, few- flowered umbels terminating 

 the young branches. 



Finally, the genus Slcp/iana/ulrd'' may be defined as Spiiccn with a 



' By alxirtion of one or more of the normal * More rnrcly two or tlircc. 



rarpelH. Hut in cultivated plants wo find ripo * A. (Ihav, Iuc. cit., t. xxx. 



fruits with a larger number of drupeH (nee p. 381, • " Membmnacett duplicatoserrata." 



note 3). ' Thev are wiid to be while, like those of 



■ SiRn. ii Zi'cc, lor. ri7.— Walp., RrjK, V. R/ii>d<ift/f>os. 



GBS. MlQ., .1/m*. /.«//'/• Jiiif.,V\'\.^3. " SiKli. Si Zrcc, Abhand. JUUnck. Akaii., 



» A. (lliAV, Mftn. Amer. Aeatl., n. kit., vi. iii. 7;t!l. t. 4, Hp. 2. — F.NDL., Ortt., ii. tUUt^', 



(IS5K) 'AT\.— Srvius<t IJ.II., Ihn., CtVA, ii. 2"). Snpiil. iii. 102.— M. H.. 6Vh.. 012, n. 2(1. 



