21b NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



surface to form a tliree-sidecl pyramid. Above the perianth the recep- 

 tacle usually undergoes a singular deformation. Its centre is in most 

 species much depressed into a sort of conical sac, while its borders 

 rise up considerably, projecting above this sac to form a sort of roof 

 or dome, leaving only a very narrow aperture at the summit 

 (tig. '2(')'6). This is traversed by the styles, which project from it, 

 while the ovaries are lodged within the receptacular sac, the 

 whole of whose convex surface gives insertion to the pieces of the 

 androccum, which are arranged in a spiral (tig. 264). The stamens, 

 articulated at the base and very caducous, consist of a flattened 

 connective, swollen at the apex into a truncate or rounded glandular 

 head, and bearin<j: on its outer face two adnate cells of longitudinal 

 dehiscence. The carpels, of variable number,' consist each of an ovary 

 tapering into a style, which is dilated" after passing through the 

 oritice of the receptacular dome (fig. 263), and then tapers again into 

 a stigmatiferous apex- In the interior angle of the ovary is seen a 

 placenta bearing an indefinite number of ovules, originally arranged 

 in two vertical rows, with their micropyles turned outwards and 

 downwards ; more rarely their number is reduced to two or three, 

 inserted at variable heights on the interior angle of the ovary. The 

 compound fruit consists of a variable number of sessile or slightly 

 stipitate berries, more or less elongated, or short and thick, with or 

 without more or less marked strangulations between the individual 

 seeds. ^ They sometimes open more or less irregularly ; the seeds 

 contain a ruminated albumen and a minute embrj^o. The aril is 

 often well developed on both sides of the umbilicus (figs. 265, 266). 

 In some species, the very peculiar form of the receptacle disappears 

 more or less completely ; the terminal part supporting the carpels 



Certain flowers ot X. malayana oi.ly con- tions; they are more or less marked, sometimes 



tain tliret. X. Laslelliaiia)i.'^-i.{Adansonia, even very deep in X. Richanli Boiv. (ex 



iv. lU) has usually six, lach superposed to a H. Ex., Adansonia, v. 115, n. 1), a species found 



petal. In many otlier species, especially X. in Bourbon, but which, according to A. Eichaed 



athioplca A. Bleu., there are very many, as there {MSS.), is a native of America. In the species 



lire in the specie.-, of the sicliou Pstudanona. of the section P*e«rfrt«OH« the berries are thick 



Here and there are flowers with a single carpel. and nearly continuous, recalling those of .4*/;«ma 



^ This swelling is rarely wanting. It is long in form aiid size. In A'. {Habzelia) ferniginea, 



and fusiform in most species, daviform in X. on the contrarv, they are deeply strangulated, so 



mala,,an'i Hook. &, TiioMS. {Fl. Ltd., i. 125). In deeply and regularly as to recall on the whole the 



I'stitdanona the style is only a long narrow strap, moniliform masses of theUnonas, such as U. dis- 



more or les-s revolute at the apex. color (figs. 237, 238). The berries of X Vieillardi 



3 In A', at/iiopiai the berries are r.early con- (see p. 219, note 4) are short and irreirnlarly 



fiiiimus, presenting hut very slight strungtila- obovate, often nionospermous. 



