2U 



NATURAL HISTORY OF TL.iNTS. 



acute, while the chiws of the latter are much shorter and narrower/ 

 Tlie petals only approach the form of tliose of C. hrasilieme towards 

 the time of the complete expansion of the flower, remaining until 

 then very much like those of several true Unouas. But the sexual 

 origans and fruit (iig. 290)- are exactly those of Ci/mbopetaliim. We 

 already know nine species of this genus;' small American trees 

 found between Mexico and Brazil, with, subsessile mem- 

 branous leaves, often somewhat unsymmetrical at the 

 Imse. The flowers are solitary and terminal, leaf-opposed 

 or extra-axillary, usually on very long peduncles/ 



Beside Cymhopetalimi has been placed Enantia^ in 

 which there are only six leaves to the perianth : three 

 sepals and three petals superposed to them. The former 

 are lanceolate and valvate ; the latter are much longer, 

 erect or slightly spreading, thick and coriaceous, flat, or 

 with slightly reflexed edges, and with a concave con- 

 tracted base. The convex receptacle bears an indefinite 

 number of linear-oblong stamens, whose dilated con- 

 nective is but little dilated above the anther-cells- 

 The carpels are also indefinite ; each ovary contains 

 a single erect ovule, and is surmounted by a short linear oblong 

 style, traversed by an internal longitudinal groove. IE. Morantha 

 Oliv., the only species known, is a tree from the west of tropical 

 Africa, with alternate membranous leaves, and solitary extra- 

 axillary flowers on short peduncles. 



Ci/mhopctalum 



obUtsiJlorum. 



Fig. 290. 



Fruit. 



' The calyx also becomes very different from 

 the inner petals, especially in thickness. It is at 

 first a membranous globular sac, completely sur- 

 rounding the corolla in the bud. 



' Here the fruit, though of quite the same 

 appearance as in C. hras'diense appears tho- 

 roughly jndcliiscent. We see also from tig. 290 

 that the lowermost segment remains empty and 

 of small size, but is separated from the rest of the 

 carjH.'! by a well-marked, nearly transverse 

 furrow. 



•* To which we have referred (^Adansonia, viii. 

 298) Unona jiendulijlora DrN. (tig. 289), viri- 

 dijlora Si'LITG., oitusiflora DC, and with some 

 doubt, U.fuscata DC. Sect. BracJiycymhium. 



* They may be either erect, or pendulous, as 

 in C. jifndulijlorum, and are sometimes even 

 thicker than the branch from which they spring. 



^ Olitee, Journ. Linn. Soc, ix. 174. — B. H., 

 Gen., 958, n. 28«. — H. Bn., Adansonia, viii. 

 343. 



