196 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



Sageraa latirina} 

 Fig. 230. 

 Flower (^). 



imbricated petals. Above these parts, the Horal receptacle forms a 

 llattened head, with broad facets corresponding to the insertions of 

 the stamens and carpels. The former are few in number, being 



about as numerous as the pieces of the pe- 

 rianth ; they are shaped like an inverted 

 """"^ ' ' pyramid, with an extrorse two- celled anther 



dehiscing longitudinally, above which the 

 connective expands into a truncate plate.* 

 There are the six large scales external to the 

 fertile stamens,'- which we should probably 

 consider as sterile ones, which in S. laurina 

 Dalz., for example (fig. 230), simulate a 

 third corolla internal to the six normal petals. 

 The carpels are either few in number, for we 

 sometimes only count from two to six, or else indefinite. Their ovary 

 contains along its inner ancjle an indefinite number of ovules in 



two vertical rows. The fruit consists of 

 one or more swollen, nearly globular, 

 one or many-seeded berries. The three 

 or four species of this genus are In- 

 dian plants,^ with alternate, glabrous 

 coriaceous leaves, and axillary or lateral 

 fiowers, solitary, or more frequently col- 

 lected into cymes. 



Tdrajpetalinn (fig. 231)^ may be defined 

 as Uvaria, with dimerous floral verticils. 

 In fact, on the slightly convex receptacle, 

 we find two much imbricated sepals, and 

 four alternatively imbricated, rounded. 



Tetrupetalum voluhile. 

 Fig. 231. 

 Diagram. 



' These stamens have the prolongation of the 

 ronnective above the anther-cells tapering and 

 bent inwards, so as to recall pretty closely the 

 form of tlio stamens in Millimece, and hence it is, 

 no donbt, that some species of Sagercea were 

 originally placed in the genus Bocagea. 



^ H. B.V., Adansonia, viii. 328. In fact, the 

 form of these scales, as represented in fig. 230, 

 their thickness and consistency, indicate a great 

 analogy to the fertile stamens interior to them. 

 Tlie upper border of each is divided into four 

 little festoons, each of wliich appears to answer 

 to the summit of a rudimentary half-cell ; and we 



can even see three very shallow furrows on the outer 

 face, that terminate above in the notches between 

 the festoons. We do not know whether these sterile 

 organs exist in other species than <S.?«?<m(«, Dalz.; 

 if so, the descriptions make no mention of the fact. 

 ^ G-uatteria laurifoUa Geah., Cat. Bomb., 4. 



* HooE. & Thoms., FL Lid., i. 93.— Grah., 

 Cat. Bomb., loc. cit. — Walp., Sep., i. 76, 4, 

 Ann., iv. 50 ; vii. 50. — Thwait., Enum. PL 

 Zeyl., fi. — MiQ, FL Ind.-Bat., i. p. ii. 21; Ann. 

 Mils. Lugd. Bat., W. 10. 



* MiQ., Ann. Mus. Lugd. Bat., ii. 8. — B.H., 

 Gen., 955, n. 2 r?.— H. Bn., Adansonia, viii. 336. 



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