198 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



of stipitate one-seeded berries. The erect seed contains ruminated 

 albumen, and a nearly apical embryo. This genus consists of trees 

 and slirubs from the warm regions of America ; about fifty species 

 have been described.' They have alternate leaves ; and the flowers, 

 solitary or united into few-flowered cymes, are axillary, lateral, 

 terminal, or sometimes leaf-opposed. 



In Aberemod- the petals are imbricated, as in Uvaria and Cananga f 

 and the carpels are multiovulate, as in the latter. The style sur- 

 mounting them often tapers into a sort of sharp horn. But the 

 fruit does not consist of a number of stipitate berries, arranged in an 

 umbel as in Ccuianga ; its structure is usually similar to that of the 



Ano/ias, which we shall study a little later 

 on. It is an ovoid or spherical, fleshy or 

 woody mass, formed by the union of all 

 the carpels ; a union which may be so 

 intimate as almost to obliterate all traces 

 of the different styles on the surface of the 

 fruit (fig. 235). In others we can dis- 

 tinguish their tips as more or less promi- 

 nent points ;^ and it may happen that the 

 berries, almost woody, are free to the base ; 

 but in that case the common receptacle 

 swells into a thick pyriform, or nearly 

 pyriform mass, to support them, the whole always presenting a 

 very peculiar aspect.^ The seeds are arillate, with very copious, 

 fleshy, ruminated albumen. In one species of this genus, described 



Aberemoa (Fusaa) longlfulia. 

 Fig. 23k 



Diagram. 



' Walp., Rep., i. 82 ; ii. 747 ; Ann., iv. 72 ; 

 vii. 52. — DC, loc. clt. ; Icon. Deless., i. 24, t. 

 90.— .\. DC, Mem., -10.— A. S. H., Fl. Bras. 

 Mer., \. 3f). — Mart., Fl. Bras., Anonac, 25, t. 

 7-12. — SciiLTL., Linnita, ix. 320. — Pl. k 

 Triana, Ann. Sc. JVaL, ser. 4, xvii. 31, — H. 

 Bn., Adansonia, viii. 268. 



* AUBL., au'tan., i. 610, t. 245.— H. Bx., 

 Adansonia, viii. 336. — Duguetia A. S. H., Fl. 

 Bras. Merid., i. 35, t. 6, 7.— A. DC, Mum., 

 40.— Em)L., Gen., n. 4722.— B. H., Qen. 23, n. 

 8. — H. Bk., Adansonia, viii. 326. — Cardiopeta- 

 liim ScULTi-., Linnwa, ix. 328. 



^ The receptacle sometimes presents the same 

 form as in this ^enus; its summit is concave in 

 Dngwtia hrarleosn Mart. The petals, often 

 marked inside by a dark spot at the base, may 



be very thick and, as it were, shagreened, like 

 those of Asimiiia triloba ; this is very marked 

 in Anonafurfuracea A. S. H. (Fl. Bras. Mer., i. 

 34, t. 6), whicli is an Aberemoa. 



■* Some species, such as Anona calycina. Sag. 

 (Guiana) have the carpels hardly distinct in the 

 green fruit, but when ripe they fall oft" from the 

 connnon receptacle, together with the seed that 

 each encloses, no longer surrounded by the 

 pericarp towards its base. 



^ This is the case in Duguetia lanceolata A. 

 S. H., the typical species of the genus Duguetia. 

 Its carpels are free to the base, and the common 

 receptacle supporting them is swollen into a sort 

 of woody pear, with one facet corresponding to 

 each carpel. 



