28 ( 



NATURAL ITI^TOUY OF PLANTS. 



Within each is loiiiul an ascending- seed, whose coats, closely 

 appHed to tlie inside of the pericarp, inclose a very large fleshy 

 embryo witli its radicle inferior, and with broad foliaceous coty- 

 ledons, spirally rolled on each other round a vertical axis. The 

 albumen is absent or represented by a few rudiments in the folds of 



the embryo.' 



The ''enus C(//j/canf/f/f8 consists of aromatic shrubs with opposite 

 simple exstipulate leaves.' Three species' are known, all natives of 

 North America. C.floridas, the one we have just analysed, includes 

 several varieties cultivated in this country. Its flowers occupy the 



Calycanihus occidental) s. 



Fig. 312. 

 Fruit. 



Fig. 313. 

 Longitudinal section of fruit. 



axils of the fallen leaves. Each peduncle is provided with two 

 lateral leaves or bracts decussating with the two first bracts borne on 

 the receptacle ; and the same axil usually contains, besides the 

 peduncle, a leafy branch, which later on becomes greatly developed, 

 and may even be terminated by a flower.^ In C. occidentalism the 

 species with the largest flowers, the inflorescence is sometimes axil- 

 lary, sometimes terminal. 



' There is especially a little spit of fleshy 

 (issue runninjj up from the cluilazal region into 

 the centre of the emhryo, and forminfr, as it were, 

 an axis ri'Uiid which the cotyledons are rolled. 



- The hhide presents the same peculiarities as 

 in Cliimoiifinihun (p. 286, note 4). 



* DC, Prod,:, iii. 2.— Hook., Bot. Mag., t. 

 1808. — Walp., Rrp., ii. 60; Ann.,\\\. 45.— A. 

 (iKAY, Man., \2(\.—'Vo\iK.k{3U.,FLN.Am.,\. 

 475._Chai'M., FL S. Inil.-St., 130. 



■• Thus it is that the flowers of Calycanihus, 

 descrihed as axillary, may become perfectly ter- 

 minal. 



* Hook. & Aex., ap. Beech., 340, Suppl., t. 

 84. — ToEK. & Gk., op. cit., 476. In this species, 

 when the fruit is quite ripe, the orifice of the re- 

 ceptaeular sac gradually enlarges without any rup- 

 ture, and the achenes maj' pass out through tliis 

 orifice, which is fringed with velvety rods, the 

 hypertropliied slaraiuodcs (tigs. 312, 313). 



