400 



NATURAL niSTORY OF PLANTS. 



India, China, and North America, glabrous or hairy trees or slirubs, 

 witli persistent alternate simple leaves, possessing two lateral stipules,' 

 and flowers in pseudo-corymbs," or terminal ramified racemes, com- 

 posed of usually biparous cymes. 



Stranvfpsia^ diU'ers very little in flower and vegetative organs from 

 most species of Eriohofn/n or Photinia. Tlie perianth and androceum, 

 too, arc the same, but the ovary, usually five-celled, is always free 

 for a pretty large extent, and finally forms with the surrounding 

 receptacle a drupe with a crustaceous endocar]), also five-celled. 

 When this fruit is quite ripe each cell opens down the middle line 

 and separates from the central axis. The seeds then become quite 

 free ; they have tough coats surrounding a large fleshy embryo, with 

 its radicle inferior and exserted. This genus consists of a single 

 species,^ a tree from tlie temperate parts of India possessing simple 

 alternate leaves. Its habit and inflorescence are those of many 

 species of Photinia, to which genus it might perhaps be referred 

 merely as a section. 



RaphioJppifi' (figs. 467, 408) comes very near the preceding genera, 

 from which it only differs essentially in the structure of its fruit and 



the way the upper part of the 

 flower falls off after anthesis. 

 The floral receptacle is like 

 an elongated cornet or funnel, 

 of which the bottom is filled 

 up by the ovary. Above this, 

 it is lined by a coloured glan- 

 dular disk, which does not 

 reach its mouth, where the 

 perianth and androceum are 

 inserted. The calyx consists of five quincuncial sepals, and the 

 corolla of as many elongated unguiculate petals, usually twisted 

 in aestivation. The androceum has often twenty stamens, and 



Raphiolepis rubra. 



Fio. 4fiR. 

 Lonpitudinal section of flower. 



' The Hti]>iilfs lire Rometiincs very large, 

 brotid, mill Inify. 



- HcttUy foiineil of ejiiicH, willi :ixeH of tliree 

 or four tiiuceK-ive p-nenitioiiH. 



•■• LlNDi... /^'/. Jif'/; t. lillin. — Endl., G'tl., 

 n. (\X>i.— li. M., O'": ^''^7, n. (W.— Wai,I'.. 

 Jiej)., \\. 59. 



* S. qlauca.- — S. //laurrtretu LiNDI.., lor. 

 cU.— Cral(rgiu gl^uca V/ k\.\... Cat., n. 073.— 



Bbntham & Hooker refer with ilouht to the 

 poiuis Pho/inui S. diijtfna SiEH. ii. Zrcc, (Ahh. 

 d. Akiid. »'/«., iv.2, 129.— WAI.P., -4»i«.. >. 

 973). 



* Ll?n)L., Bot. Peij., t. -WW, C^:>2, 1 tOO ; Col. 

 hrf. Rot., t. 3 ; Tratu. Linn. Soc, xiil. 105.^ 

 DC. Prodr., ii. (530.— SPACII. SuU. ,) Ruffom, 

 ii. 7H._Km)I... Oen., n. (5352.-11. H., Urn., 

 (527, n. G7. 



