•21-2 



NATUnAL mSTOUY OF PLANT!^. 



Wliilo wo niav define Bovagca as Vnona with the stamens of 

 MUiusa, Popoicia' (fii^-s. 251-200), closely analogous by the small 

 si/A' of its flowers and by its corolla and gynajceum, has most 

 pecuHar stamens, very dissimilar in the fairly numerous species now 

 included in the genus, and which, presenting in some species forms 

 like those ascribed to the Uvariea and the Miliiisea, ofier, on the 

 contrary, in others, very strange forms, which would necessitate 

 the foundation of a special tribe, if it were always right to set a 



Popoiuia cajfra. 



Fig. 251. 



Stamen (Y). 



Popoivia ( Clathrospermum) Mannii. 

 Fig. 252. 

 Diagram. 



Popowia fornicaia. 



Fig. 253. 



Stamen (Y). 



capital value on the appearance of the pieces of the androceum. But 

 this will only l)e seen after a somewhat detailed study of certain 

 African species of Popowia. 



P. caffra," for instance, has a small flower, of which the bud 

 is depressed, with a short calyx of three divisions, and six 

 valvate petals, nearly as broad as they are long. The outer ones 

 are sessile, nearly triangular. The inner taper considerably at 

 the base, where they leave large openings between one another, 

 through which the stamens are seen. These are rather numerous. 

 The inner ones are the longer, and touch by their very thick 

 edges, to form a continuous circular belt round the gynjjeceum. 

 The outer ones are the shorter, but all present the same conforma- 

 tion, easier to represent (fig. 251) than to describe. Imagine an 



' Endt.., Gen., n. 4710.— B. H., Oen., 25, n. 

 19.— II. Bk., Adansonia, viii. 314, 339.— ^Hook. 

 A Thoms., Fl. Ind., i. 114. 



- Benth., Lhiii. Trans., xxiii. ITO, ii. 1. (The 



species n. 2 of this autlior is a Cleisiochlamys). 

 — Oitatteria cajfra SoND., Fl. Cap., i. 9. — 

 Unona cajfra E. Mey., PI. Dreg. 



