134 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PL^iNTS. 



of the consistency and colour usually presented by petals. More- 

 over, the fruit, instead of having all its elements 



in an ovoid mass, as in 



close together 

 M. 



Magnolia Yulan. 



Fig. 172. 



Fruit, 



(jrandifora (fig. 168) has a more 

 elongated axis, more or less bent 

 on itself (fig. 172), so that its 

 carpels are further apart ; some 

 of these do not attain their full 

 development.* It is however in- 

 contestible that on reviewing the 

 fruits of all the Magnolias known, 

 we find every possible transition 

 between the form in M. Yulan, 

 and that of M. jrandifora.- In 

 many species, too, the number 

 of pieces in the perianth is in- 

 creased to a variable extent, 

 either normally or through cul- 

 tivation, while the form and 

 colour of these parts vary 

 greatly, without any value being 

 assignable to these characters. 

 But the flowers always termi- 

 nate the branches, and there is 

 of the stamens and that of the 



no interval between the insertion 

 carpels on the receptacle. 



Not so in the small flowers of Magnolia Figo^ (figs. 173, 174), 



' The form and length of the receptacle in the 

 rl])e fruit ure very variable. It is sometimes so 

 sliort as only to bear one fertile carpel ; at other 

 times nearly straight, or slightly bent, or like a 

 hook, as in tig. 172 ; or even bent twice on itself 

 into an S, like the stock of a Bistort. In the 

 fniits of this group, some carpels open along the 

 wliole length of the back, others only open half- 

 way down ; others, again, are partly detached 

 from the receptacle along the inner angle, down 

 which the cleft extends from the back. We 

 find licre, in fine, every possible transition between 

 tlie dehiscence of J/, yraiulijlora and that of 

 Talauma, in wliich the carpels separate from the 

 axis, and only open along a variable extent of the 

 internal angle. It also hajtpens, in certain sjiecics, 

 tliat several neighbouring carpels are united 



laterally, and come off together in irregular 

 flakes. This is very well shown in T. fragruntis- 

 sima, in plates ccix., ccx. of Hooker's Icones. 



2 Thus the fruit of M. CampleUii Hook. P. 

 & Thoms. {Fl.Ind., i. 77), represented in the///. 

 PI. Hinial. (t. 4), and reproduced in the Flore 

 des Serres (t. 1282-1285), has also the conical 

 fruit of 31. grandifora, but much elongated, and 

 approaching the cylindrical form found in Yulan 

 and the allied species, from which it further 

 differs in being nearly straight. 



3 M.fasciata Vent., Malmais., n. 24, not. — 

 M. fiiscata Ande., Bat. Rep., t. 229.— Zirio- 

 dendron Figo LoUR., Fl. Cochinch., ed. AV., i. 

 424. — Liriopsis fuscata Spach, Suit, a Bvffon ; 

 vii. 461. — 3IicheHa Hance, Ann. Sc. Nat., 

 scr. 5, V. 205. We have elsewhere remarked 



