n 



NATURAL mSTOBY OF PLANTS. 



circumference of this cup ; the gynaeceura is nearly central.' This 

 last ol'ten consists of ten carpels,-' live superposed to the sepals, and 

 five alternate with them. The ovary contains two ascending ovules, 

 whose micropyle is at first introrse : the style is bent outwards, and 

 swells at the tip into a small stigmatiferous head, emarginate on the 



Fig. 133. 

 Flower. 



Hihbertia (Burtonia) grossidariafoUa. 



Fig. 134 

 Longitudinal section of flower. 



inside. The stamens, whose anthers are distinctly introrse,^ are 

 shorter, as they are the more external ; usually some of these are 

 even sterile, as in //. voliibilis. The peculiar form of the receptacle 

 produces a somewhat perigynous insertion of the outer whorls, and 

 so gives the flower quite the appearance of several Rosacece, such as 

 PofentiUa or Geum. The branches of H. grossidancefolia are slender 

 and sarmentose. The petioles of the alternate leaves are dilated 

 at the base. The flowers, really terminal, in time become lateral 

 and leaf-opposed."* 



In these species, and in all those analogous to them,'^ the stamens 

 occupy the centre of the flower, as we have said above. In those 



' The younger the flower is, the larger is that 

 dome-shaped sumn)it of the receptacle around 

 which the carpels are inserted to form a sort of 

 crown, but leaving the very centre quite free. 



" There may be more or less than ten. In 

 the latter ca>e the position of the two or three 

 supernumerary carpels is not constant. 



^ Later the micropyle is more or less bent 

 outwards. Long before the flower expands 

 the hilum is surrounded by a small arillary 

 ring. 



* Besides the leaf opposite the inflorescence 

 separated from it by a " usurping" bud rapidly 

 developed into a pseudo-stem, the floral peduncle 



may be accompanied by another leaf opposite 

 the first, often but little developed and reduced 

 to a bract. This arises not from the branch but 

 from the peduncle, which may bear it eitlier 

 close to its base as described, or at a variable 

 height, and which sometimes bears several other 

 alternate bracts. 



* These alone form the genus Hihhertia of 

 De Candolle & Endlichek, maintained as a 

 distinct genus by Beongniakt, who thinks that 

 " these modifications in the organization of the 

 androceum supply good generic distinctions" 

 {loc. cit.). 



