ANONACEjE. 



211 



numerous, in two vertical rows ; and tlie receiDtaclc wliicli it termi- 

 nates gives insertion below to a lar^e number of stamens, wliicli are 

 shorter as they are more external, and to two thick valvate corollas, 

 forming in the bud the sort of three-sided pyramid of certain species 

 of Melodorum and Kenf'ia. 



Thus constituted,' tlie genus Bocagea includes half a score species 

 from the tropical regions of both hemispheres. AVe already know 



Bocagea {EremodelpMs) Gaudicliaudiana. 



Fig. 248. 

 Flower. 



Fig. 250. 

 Stamen. 



Fig. 219. 

 Longitudinal section of flower. 



live species from Brazil- and one from Ambongo.' The others are 

 Indian plants, hitherto described under the name of Aljjlionsea^ 

 They are trees or shrubs, with alternate, often glabrous, leaves. The 

 flowers are either solitary or grouped into few-flowered cymes, often 

 supported on slender peduncles ; sometimes axillary, sometimes ter- 

 minal, but more often leaf-opposed or extra- axillary, springing from 

 the branches at very variable heights on the internodes ; and this 

 variation may occur in one and tlie same species. 



at the same time pluri- and uni-carpellary plants. 

 Here the gynaiceum is inserted near the summit 

 of a rather elongated floral receptacle. The ovules 

 are numerous, arranged in two vertical rows; 

 and the style is somewhat swollen at Its apex 

 into a depressed stigmatiferous head. The struc- 

 ture of the very numerous stamens, which are 

 shorter as they are more e.^tenial, is the sume 

 as in B. verrucosa. 



' Namely, first of the Indian Alplinnscas, 

 which might hecome a section if we only re- 

 tained the species that ai-e pluri-carpellary, .and 

 have many stamens. A second section might be 

 formed for the Old World species with only a 

 limited number of stamens, especially B. heter- 

 aniha, which has but three or six. In a third 

 section, which would bear the same relation to 



the rest of the genus as Monocarpia bears to 

 Unona proper, the gynajceum would be reduced 

 to a single carpel [Eremodelphis). Finally the 

 true Bocageas, all Americnn, would have the 

 stamens and carpels definite or nearly so ; but 

 the latter would be multiovulate as in the 

 species for which A. DK Saint-Hilaiee esta- 

 blished the genus; or else, as in B. canesceiis, 

 a single excentric carpel with a biovulate ovary 

 would exist in the centre of the flower. 



- A. S. H., loc. cit. (see p. 210. notes 1, 2). — 

 JfAiiT., Fl. Bras., 44, t. 11.— H. Bn., Adan- 

 sonia, viii. 164, 169, 170. 



•* H. Bn., Adansonia, viii. 173. 

 ' HOOK.& Thoms., Fl. Lid., i. 152.— Tiiw., 

 Fnum. in. Zeyl, 11. 



V '2 



