222 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



Anona muricata. 

 Fig. 270. 

 Diagram. 



all those ditVprcncesoi" lorm, the petals are still very thick and valvate 

 in the hud. Tn A. muricata^ (fif^s. 209-271), while the outer petals 

 retain these characters, the inner ones are thinner towards the edges, 



and are strongly imbricated in a3stivation. 

 The same occurs in A. involucrata,- in which, 

 moreover, the flower is enveloped by two 

 bracts, tliat form a complete sac for the 

 young bud. In all these species the stamens, 

 inserted in a spiral on a hemispherical re- 

 ceptacle, are surmounted by a thick, truncate, 

 oblong or oval dilatation of the connective, 

 and are, in a word, analogous to those of 

 Uvaria. Each carpel contains one or two'"* 

 nearly basilar ascending ovules, with the 

 micropyles outwards and downwards ; and 

 the multiple fruit is a fleshy berry in which the seeds are scattered, 

 and whose surface is nearly smooth, reticulate, or covered with 

 ol)tuse projections or recurved prickles. 



In one small-flowered species from Mexico, the characters of the 

 female organs and the fruit are the same ; but the flowers, few in 

 number, have in the bud the globular form found in most Bocageas ; 

 hence the name of the species, A. glohlfora f the stamens are exactly 

 those of several species of the same genus Bocagea, the anther-cells 

 being surmounted by a narrow conical projection of the connective 

 (fig. 274). The inner petals are quite wanting in this species 

 (fig. 273). It is, however, impossible to separate this plant from 

 the genus Anona, of which it constitutes a distinct section under the 

 name of AnoneUa. 



Half a hundred species of Anona are admitted ; but this number 



wanting or reduced to small scales. These miglit 

 be further subdivided according to the pre- 

 florntion of the corolla, and the very different 

 modifications of form that it affects in the bud, 

 of which we have just spoken. 



' L., .S>er., 75().-Jacq., Ohs., i. 10, t. 5. — 

 DrN., Mon., G2.— DC; Syst., i. 467 ; Prodr., i. 

 8-1, n. 1. — A. asiatica L., Spec. ii. 758, ex R. 

 Bb., Congo, G. 



2 H. Hx., Adansonia, viii. 265, n. 2. 



■'' We have often seen two young seeds in eai.-h 

 carpel in some newly-formed fruits of A. sqva- 

 moxfi, sent from Honrbon. Tlicy were ol tlic 



same size, or else the one had already greatly 

 surpassed the other in size, whose development 

 seemed destined to cease at that stage. This 

 fact perhaps indicates that two is the original 

 number of the ovules in the young carpels of 

 Anona. Those we have seen in pairs were in- 

 serted at nearly the same height. The circum- 

 ference of the umbilicus formed a circular pro- 

 jection around the insertion of the very short 

 and relatively narrow funicle. 



* SCHLTL., LinncBa, ix. 235. — H. Bn., Adan- 

 xonia, viii. 266, 313. 



