424 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



Parinari xenegalense. 



are in axillary or terminal racemes, simple, ramified or made up 

 of cymes. 



Parinari ^ (fig. 501) may be very briefiy defined now that we know 

 the preceding genera : it is Couepia in which the stamens, from ten 

 to twenty in number or indefinite, are fertile either only on one side 

 of the flower or all round the receptacle, while the ovary is divided into 

 two uniovulate half-cells by a vertical false 

 dissepiment, which advances from its walls 

 into the interval between the two collate- 

 ral ovules. We often find this represented 

 in the drupaceous fruit,' for the stone may 

 be divided into two one-seeded cavities. 

 Parinari consists of trees of which upwards 

 ^^^ gQ^ of thirty species have been described ; they 



Perianth and audroceum opened have alternate persisteut simplc leaves, the 

 °"^' blade often provided with two lateral 



glands at its base, the petiole with two lateral stipules. The 

 flowers are in racemes or corymbs, either simple or made up of 

 cymes. ^ About half the species inhabit tropical America,' the 

 rest belong to the Old World, to tropical and eastern Africa,^ to 

 Australia/ and some, flnally, to the Indian Archipelago.^ Among 

 these last there are species whose flowers often have a reduced 

 number of stamens, and a shallower receptacle than in HirieUa 

 or Couepia. They have, however, been united to the genus 

 Parinari despite these points of dissimilarity, because their ovary 

 and flower present the false dissepiment between the ovules or seeds ; 



1 AUBL., Ghiian., i. 514, t. 204, 206.— Parwa- 

 rium J., Gen., 342. — Lamk., Diet., v. 17 ; 

 Suppl., iv. 301 ; III., t. 429.— DC, Frodr., ii. 

 626. — Spach, Suit, a JBvffon, i. 371. — Endl., 

 Gen., n. 6411.— B. H., Gen., 607, n. b.—Fetro- 

 varya Schreb., Gen., 245. — Balantium Desvx., 

 Ham. Prodr. Fl. Ind. Occ, 34. — Dugortia ScoP., 

 Introd., n. 956. — Maranthes Bl., Bijdr., 89. — 

 Excitella Br.., Fl. Jan. Fraf., vii. — Grymania 

 Presl., Epimel., 193. — Lepidocarya Korth., 

 Ned. Kniidk. Arch., iii. 386. — Entosiphon 

 Bedd., Madr. Jouni. Sc, ser. 3, i. 44 (ex B. H.). 



^ Exceptionally we may find certain dicar- 

 pellary flowers produce two drupes. 



3 The inflorescence is branched in the species 

 of which De Candolle has made his section 

 Fetrocarya, while his Neocarya is described as 

 possessing simple terminal racemes. In short, 

 the inflorescence of Farinari presents every varia- 

 tion observed in Couepia. 



* Benth., Hook. Joitrn., ii. 213. — Mart., 

 Ohs. (1819), n. 2670.— Hook. F., Mart. Fl. 

 Bras., Fosac, 49, t. 17, 18. 



5 Sab., Trans. Hort. Soc, v. 451. — Peer. & 

 GuiLL., Fl. Seneg. Tent., i. 272, t. 61, 62. F. 

 senegalense Perr., described in this work, from 

 which our fig. 501 is taken, is the Neox of Adan- 

 SON (ex J., Gen., 342). The second species there 

 mentioned, F. excelsum Sab., is the Mampata of 

 Ad ANSON (ex J., loc. cit.) — Bentii., Niger, 333. 

 — Harv. & SOND , FL Cap., ii. 596.— H. Bn., 

 Adamonia, vii. 221 ; ix. 148. 



® Benth., Fl. Austral., ii. 426. 



7 MiQ., Ann. Mus. Lugd. Bat., iii. 237 ; Fl. 

 Ind.-Bat., i. p. 1, 352 ; Suppl.. i. 306.— A. Gray, 

 Bot. Unit. Slates Expl. Exp., t. 54, 55.— 

 KoRTH., Verh. Nat. Gesch., 259, t. 70.— For 

 the species of various countries see Walp., Rep., 

 ii. 7; V. 647 ; Ann., ii. 463 ; iv. 644. 



