214 



NATURAL HISTOBY OF PLANTS. 



very few African A/ionacca were known, but which is now linked to 

 Popou'ia cnjfra and its neighbours by a large number of intermediate 

 species. The flowers of C. Vogelii, in form and size analogous to 

 those of certain species of Bocayca, or of the sections Pol/jalthia and 

 Kcntia of Vnona, have a slightly convex receptacle, a short gamo- 

 sepalous calyx, scarcely marked by three crenulations, three outer 

 petals, triangular sessile and valvate ; three inner ones somewhat 

 shorter, valvate above, and not touching one another b)^ their con- 

 tracted bases. The stamens, from six to ten in number, are collected 

 into a sort of crown around the gynyeceum. Their form is singular 

 (fig. 254) ; each, as in Popoivia caffra, is a truncated p}^- 

 ramid with the large base upwards, ver}^ oblique, con- 

 tinuous with the connective, and like it covered with a 

 sort of irregular glandular tissue On its sides, which in 

 the bud touch those of the two neighbouring stamens, 

 and as it were stick to them, we see the two anther-cells, 

 somewhat oblique, each dehiscing by a longitudinal 

 cleft between the two half-cells, one of which is placed a 

 {ciathrZpermum) Httlc higher than the other. The gynseceum, consisting 

 Tvgeiu. ^£ about half a dozen carpels, is similar to that of P. 

 stamen 0^). cajfra, cacli ovary containing several ascending ovules. 

 Here, as in Poj)02via proper, the stamen gra- 

 dually alters in form from one species to another. The size and 

 obliquity of the anther vary ; either its cells are quite thrown back 

 to each side,or they approach each other towards the 

 outer face of the anther. This is continuous, without 

 any appreciable line of demarcation, with the filament, 

 which, short and thick in certain species, such as 

 P. caffra or fornicata^ (figs. 251, 258), becomes elon- 

 gated and tapers towards the base in others, especially 

 P. Vogdii (fig. 254). The superior base of the sort of 

 j)yramid to which we have compared the connective 

 becoming less and less oblique convex, finally, in 

 P. Hcudelofr (fig. 255), has a nearly horizontal direc- 

 tion and is slightly concave. In P. Barteri,^ the sort 



Popowia 



I'opowia 



( t'lathruspermum) 



Iletideloli. 



Via. 255. 

 Stamen (\2). 



•I7y. — 11. lix., Auaiisotua^ viii. 315.— Oliv , Fl. 

 Trop. Afric, 21. 



' 11. ii.v., i.p. cil., 318. 



- H. Bn.,ci^.«<., 320, note 2 (see the text for th 

 coiiipliciitod details of the forms of the stamens^ 

 ^ H. Bn., op. ciL, 324. 



