ANONACEJE. 



233 



colour. They are, moreover, valvate in tlie bud, like the sepals, 

 which become more or less reliexed on the peduncle. The recep- 

 tacle is dome-shaped, and bears a hm^e number of stamens (of 

 Uvaria), inserted in a very regular spiral. The indefinite carpels' 

 consist of a pluriovulate ovary, with a short style dilated at the 

 summit into a thick stigmatiferous head. The fruit is formed of 

 a variable number of carpels, somewhat like little pods divided 

 incompletely by oblique iniiections of the pericarp into as many 

 compartments as there are seeds. These are arillate, and in other 



Cymhopstaium penduUflorumr 



FiG. 289. 



Flower. 



respects like those of most Anonacece. It is said tliat the carpels 

 dehisce more or less completely when ripe.^ 



The characters presented by the petals, so well marked in this plant, 

 become somewhat less decided in other species which we have 

 referred to the same genus, such as Unona obfifsijlora DC.^ Here 

 there is much less ditference in size and form between the outer 

 petals and the inner ones, the former being much larger and oval 



' In some flowers tliey appear absent ; these 

 plants may then become polygamous like some 

 species of Mitrepliora. 



" H. Bn., Adansonia, vili. 208. — Uvaria pen- 

 duUjlora Moc. & Sess., Fl. Mex.,ined., ex Dun., 

 Mon., 100, t. 28 ; DC, Syst., i. 487 ; Prodr., 

 i. 8'J, n. 3. 



•* " Baccec stipitaicB ohlongtc, sub pressione 

 scepe apertce" (B. H., Oen., loc. cit.). We have 

 in fact seen the frnits open towards the ajH-x for 

 a certain distance along the ventral angle; but 

 it is possible that this rapture only occurs in the 

 herbarium, 



•' Sy.i/. Veij., i. 187 ; Prodr., i.S'J, n. T. 



