152 



NATURAL ETSTORY OF PLANTS. 



with multiovulate carpels, and presenting, besides the perianth of 

 numerous unequal imbricated leaves, a valvular membranous sac of 

 a siui^le piece considered by botanists as a calyx. At flowering time 

 this sac is torn irregularly from above downwards into two, three, 

 or four unecpial caducous lobes. We then see the interior leaves, of 

 very variable number, inserted in a spiral on a fairly elongated 

 receptacle, the tui-ns of which are more widely separated on a level 

 witli the androceum. This consists of a large number of unequal 

 stamens. In the flowers of D. Wititeri' (figs. 200-202), famous 

 for producing the Winter bark, there are often more than fifty 

 stamens, shorter as they are more inferior, and each consisting of a 

 flattened filament and a two-celled extrorse anther, dehiscing longi- 



FiG. 201. 

 Diasrram. 



Dr'imys Winteri. 



Fig. 202. 

 Longitudinal section of flower. 



tudinally.' The sessile carpels, about five in number,' free, and 

 forming a crown around the summit of the receptacle, on which 

 they are articulated, consist each of a unilocular ovary and a very 



11. B. K., Nov. Gen. et Spec. PI. Mquin., \., t. 

 58. — Mafjallana CoMM. — Canella DoMB. (nee 

 P. liH.).—Boirjiie MoL. (ex. Endl., ^Hc/ir., 428). 

 — Tasmannia R. Be., ex DC. Syst. F<?j7., i. 445 ; 

 I'rodr., loc. cit., n. 4. 



' FoKST., Uc. cit. — Feuill., Ols., iii. 10, t. 

 G.—Bot. Mag., t. 4800.— Mi ices, op. cit., 135, n. 

 5. — KicuL., in Mart. Flor. Bras., Magnoliac, 

 132, t. 30-32.— 1>. punctata Lamk., Diet., ii. 

 330; III., t. 494, fig. \.—D. aromatica Des- 

 COCHT., Fl. Ant., i. t. 40. — D. polymorpha 

 Spach, op. cit., 437. — Winlerana aromalica 

 Sol., loc. cit., 1. 1. — Wintera aromatica Muee., 

 loc. cit. ; App. Med., iv. 507.— W., Spec. Plant., 

 ii. 1239. This species is the type of the section 

 Wintera (DC, Sy-it., i. 4-13) thus characterized : 

 " Calyx 2, :i-parfitti.s- ant 1, ^-.sepalu.s." 



' The cells are sometimes close together all the 

 way, and sometimes diverging towards the hase. 

 The pollen of Drimys has been described by H. 



MoHL {Ann. Sc. Nat., ser. iii. 179) as formed of 

 grains aggregated into fours ; their relative places 

 are those which they would occupy if placed at 

 the vertices of a regular tetrahedron. In the 

 pollen of JD. granatens'is, for many authors a 

 variety of B. Winteri, we have seen a large de- 

 j)ressed pit occupying the centre of each of these 

 grains. On wetting the pollen the depression 

 disappears, and in its place the walls of the cell 

 form a dome- shaped projection recalling tho.<e 

 seen at the angles of the pollen grain of certain 

 Onagrciiiece. EiCHLEE has also recently figured 

 the pollen o'i D. Winter i[Flor. Bras., Magnoliac, 

 t. 30, fig. 12). 



^ There are rarely more in the typical species. 

 In D. granatensis are as many as eight or ten. 

 In several forms from South America we may 

 find flowers with only three, two, or even one 

 carpel, as in the species of the section Tas- 

 mannia. 



