ANONACEJJJ. 



•229 



more or less convex receptacle. They are of the same form as in 

 Unona and Uvaria, the connective bearing a dilatation of very 

 variable form' above the extrorse anther-cells. The carpels are 

 indefinite, and each ovary contains one or two ovules inserted on the 

 inner angle near its base or a little higher up.' The fruit consists 

 of a variable number of stipitate one-seeded berries. The seeds 

 differ greatly in form according to the species. Thus they are 

 smooth and globular or ovoidal in most of the Indian and Javanese^ 

 species of Oxyniltra, as well as in Gomothalamus* (fig. 281), which we 

 cannot separate from this genus, for the only diflference that can be 

 pointed out in its fiowers is that at the base the outer petals are a 

 little thicker, and the inner ones are a little broader.^ But in certain 

 African species, as O.^Kifens,^ the seeds become spheres bristling with 

 conical projections (figs. 282, 283), and some of the carpels contain 



Oxymitra patens. 



Fig. 282. 

 Seed. 



Fig. 283. 

 Longitudinal section of seed. 



two seeds. In some other Oxymifras from Oceania, which have been 

 made the type of a genus Bichellcv (figs. 284- 2SG), the seeds are 



' It is sometimes depressed and capitate, some- 

 times ovoidal, or more or less elongated and 

 conical ; these characters vary with the species, 

 all tlie other chnracters of the flower remaining 

 the same. 



^ Never have they appeared to us exactly 

 basilar — that is, erect. They are often incom- 

 pletely anatropous. The micropyle looks down- 

 wards and outwards, but it is often at some dis- 

 tance from the umbilicus. The style of O. patens 

 is short and depressed in the stigmatiferous part, 

 while it is like a very long oblique cone in several 

 Asiatic species. It is sometimes simple, some- 

 times bifid at the apex. 



^ Bl., loc. cit. — Hook. & Thoms., Fl. Ind., 

 i 145. — MiQ., Fl. Iml.-Bat., i. p. ii. 50; Ann. 

 Alus. Lugcl. Bat., ii. 29. — Zoll., Linna'a, xxix. 

 .324.— Thwait., Enum. PI. Zeijl., 29.— Walp. 

 Ann., iv. 72; vii. 56. 



■• Bl., Fl. Jaw, Anonac, 71, t. 39, 52, 15.— 

 MiQ., Fl. Ind.-Bat., i, p. ii. 58; Ann. Mils. 



I/i(f/d. Bat., ii. 33. — Walp., Attn., iv. 51 ; vii. 

 56.— Thwait., Fnum. PL Zeyl., 33.— B. H., 

 Gen., 26, n. 22. 



* These diflcrcnces are, moreover, far from 

 constant, and in (Toniothalanuissoxne&owers, may 

 have their inner petals simply sticking to one 

 another, so that slight traction will separate 

 them. The same thing may occur in Oxymitra 

 proper. 



" Benth., Linn. Trans., xxiii. 472, n. 1, t. 11. 

 —II. Bx., Adansonia, v. 363.— Oliy. Fl. Trap. 

 Afr., 34. The ovules are described and figured in 

 Bestiiam's work as parallel, and separated by a 

 vertical septum ; in the flowers we have been able 

 to dissect it has appeared to us horizontal. In 

 the fruit one seed is above the other, and they are 

 separated by a well marked horizontal septum. 



'' A. Gkav, .liner. Explor. Fxped., i. 28, 1. 2, 

 — B. H., Gen., 26, n. 20. — H. Bn., Adansonia, 

 viii. 177. — SiT,Y.TSl., Fl.Tiliens.,5. — Walp., Ann.. 

 vii. 56. 



