MACLOSKIE MYRTACE^. 6oi 



4. PLEUROPHORA Don. 



Calyx straight tubular, striated, io-14-toothed, the alternate teeth 

 spiny. Petals and stamens 5-7. Capsttle i -celled, 3-4-seeded. Flowers 

 small, in terminal, bracted spikes, 4-angled. 



Species 5, S. Amer. 



P. PATAGONICA Speg. 



Glabrous shrub 12 cm. high to 30 cm., with very small, ovate-lanceo- 

 late, mucronate-pungent leaves, imbricated in 4 rows on thick branches. 

 Old branches naked. Petals spatulate, entire, pink. Stamens long ex- 

 serted. Beautiful. 



Patagon., near Gulf of San Jorge ; Trelew. 



Family 77. MYRTACE^E. Myrtle Family. 



Trees or shrubs, with mostly simple, entire, punctate, exstipulate leaves, 

 and superior flowers having the perigonial tube adnate to the ovary, and 

 supporting the 4-6 sepals, and as many petals, and the numerous stamens. 

 Ovary mostly of 2 or more united carpels, 2-many-celled, with axile pla- 

 centcB ; rarely i -celled. Style simple. Seeds 2 many, mostly without 

 endosperm. 



Species nearly 3,000, having two centers, tropical S. Amer., and Aus- 

 tralia; less abundant in tropical Asia, Polynesia, and Africa. Myrtus 

 communis L. reaches the Mediterranean region ; and some species occur 

 in Tasmania and N. Zealand. They reach the northern borders of Pata- 

 gonia, and one is found as an exceptional case in Fuegia. But there are 

 no woody representatives of the family in the Magellan region or further 



south. 



KEY TO THE GENERA. 



A. Fruits berry-like, rarely drupe-like. Stamens in the bud attaining nearly their full length. 



Sepals free, even in the bud. 



b. Embryo horseshoe-shaped or spiral. Radicle exceeding the minute cotyledons. Fila- 

 ments nearly straight in the bud. 

 c. Sepals massive, prostrate in the bud. Filaments filiform, with punctiform glands next 



the connective ; anthers dorsifixed, partly versatile. 



d. Capsule chambered only above. 2. Myrteola, p. 602. 



d2. Capsule chambered from the base. 3. Myrtus, p. 603. 



d^. As Myrtus, but seeds subhorizontal on placentas at midheight. Sepals ciliated. 



5. Blepharocalyx, p. 604. 



