190 



NATUIiAL mSTORY OF PLANTS. 



are berries (figs. 225, 220); each ovary becomes an indehiscent 

 stipitate mass, the thick pericarp projecting inwards to form short 

 septa between the seeds, and dividing it into a certain number of 

 ouo seeded compartments. The seed contains ruminated fleshy 

 albumen, near the apex of which is the small embryo (fig. 228). 

 On this side is a but little marked arillary thickening, beside the 

 micropyle and the umbilical scar' (fig. 227). 



J. triloba is a shrub with alternate simple exstipulate leaves. Its 

 flowers, solitary, and usually pedunculate, arise from the axils of 

 some of the lower leaves of the last year's branches." A. parvifora 

 Dvy,' ^ra/idi/hraDv^i,^ and jyj/y;y^<^«DuN,^ have a similar organization, 

 and are natives of the same regions, i.e. the most southern part of 

 Nortli America. Accordingly, all authors are agreed in retaining 

 them in the same genus as A. trUoha ; so rightly refusing to take 

 into account the few unimportant differences presented by some of 

 these species, whether in the form and relative size of the pieces of 

 the two corollas," or in the mode of aestivation, which becomes 

 quite valvate, for the inner petals^ when they are short have thick 

 edges. 



Under the name of FUzalanicf has been described an Australian 



* M. T. Caeuel (Sludi sulla polpa che involve 

 i semi, &c., in Ann. del Mus. di Firenze, 1861) 

 has sliown ('J, t. i., figs. 1*7) that in the fruit 

 of A. triloba the pericarp surrounds the seeds 

 with a sort of pulpy Heshy sac, and tliinks this 

 the organ considered the aril of Asimina, by 

 Asa Gray {Gen. Ft. N.-Amer., i. 65). Nothing 

 can be more correct, and this sac simply repre- 

 sents a part of the pericarp applied to the seed, 

 80 as to come off with it. But besides this there 

 is at the apex of the seed, around the micropyle 

 and by the hilura, an ill-defined thickening of 

 the outer seed coat, which represents a rudi- 

 mentary aril ; this in certain Anonacece is much 

 more developed, forming a m(jre or less project- 

 ing pad, or even a whitish fleshy body with two 

 lateral auricles or wings that are sometimes very 

 prominent. (See Adansonia, viii. 333.) 



' The recurved jieduncle is covered with the 

 same brown hairs tliat are found abundantly on 

 the outer surface of the calyx, and. also on the 

 bracts that enveloped the Hawer when young and 

 during the winter. These bracts, of variable 

 numher (there are sometimes only two), separate 

 from the peduncle and fall off when the tiower 

 expanels. The flowers preferably occupy the axils 

 of the first two or three leaves of the last year's 

 branch. As early as .Funi! we can recognise what 

 axils will be occui)i«.d by flower buds, so that 



cit.- 



b 



nearly a year before the flowers come out we can 

 predict whether they will be abundant in the 

 next spring. 



3 Uvaria parvijlora ToER. & A. Gray, loc. 

 cit., n. 2. 



Orckidocarpum grandijlorum MiCHX., loc. 

 — Uvario ohovata ToRR. & A. Gray, n. 3. 

 Anona ptignicea Bartk. — Uvaria pygmma 

 Tore. & A. Gray, n. 4, 



^ See Adansonia, viii. 302. In the flowers of 

 U. parvijlora ToRR. & Gr. the inner petals 

 are smaller than the outer ones, but of similar 

 form. In U. triloba there is a time when both 

 sets are of nearly equal loiigfh. The inner petals 

 of U. obovata are by far the shorter, and in every 

 respect like those of several Monodoras, The 

 base tapers to a claw, and the dilated apex is 

 almost the shape of an an-owhead. These three 

 petals converge to form a sort of vault with three 

 pillars. In U. pygmma the form and arrange- 

 ment of the inner petals is the same ; but the 

 difference of size between them and tlie outer ones 

 is less decided. 



"^ The inner petals of XJ. pygmcea and obovata 

 only touch by their thickened borders in this 

 dilated almost sagittate part, which exactly re- 

 calls tlio conformation of the pieces of the inner 

 corolla in several Monodoras. 



8 F. MUKLL., Fragm. Phyt. Austral., iv. 33. 



