MONIMIACEJE. 



287 



like a long-necked gourd,' enclosing the true fruits, and closed, as in 

 Calycaiithus proper (figs. 310-313), by a sort of star witli five or six 

 fleshy branches, representing the sterile stamens thickened and ap- 

 proximated to the centre. Each achene contains within its mem- 

 branous and nearly smooth pericarp an erect seed, of which the 

 embryo is rolled up as in Cali/cauthus (figs. 316, 317). 



II. HOETONIA SERIES. 



The flowers of Hortonia" (figs. 318-323) are hermaphrodite or 

 polygamous.^ In the former case the receptacle is like a cup of 

 variable depth,^ bearing on its edges the pieces of the perianth and 

 androceum, inserted along a spiral with very close turns. The outer- 

 most leaves of the perianth descend even some way down the outside 

 of the oval receptacular cup ; they are from six to thirty in number, 

 imbricated, becoming thicker, shorter, and more sepaloid as they 

 are more external, while the inner ones are membranous, petaloid, 



en Anjou," Ann. de la Soc. Linn, de Maine-et- 

 Loire, ix. 91), we only admit a single species, 

 Chimonanthus prcecox [C. fragrans Lindl. ; — 

 Calycantlms pracox L. ; — Meratia fragrans 

 Nees), with numerous varieties due to cultiva- 

 tion, whether in Japan, its mother country, or in 

 the gardens of other temperate countries; where it 

 is abundantly cultivated. Its leaves are studded 

 with glandular dots, and the upper surface is 

 scabrous ; this is owing to peculiar hairs which 

 possess the same characters, though less marked 

 in the species of Calycantlms. The base of each 

 hair is rather broad and surrounded by epidermic 

 cells converging towards its circumference ; the 

 hair then rises like a little curved cone with its 

 tip inclined towards the apex of the leaf. Hence 

 the leaf feels very rough if we rub it towards the 

 base, and quite smooth in the opposite direction. 

 ' It bears the numerous scars of the floral 

 appendages; but as the chief increase in size 

 while ripening takes place in the lower part, these 

 scars, close together above, are on the contrary 

 widely separated, linear and transverse, over all 

 the rest of the surface. Within are contained 

 several fertile fruits, besides some sterile achenes. 

 Each of these is borne on a sort of projecting ob- 

 pyrauiidal pad, to the top of which it has a linear 

 attachment. In the intervals between the fertile 

 achenes the tissue of the receptacle projects to 

 form a sort of incomplete dissepiments — the first 

 rudiments of those large plates which divide tiie 



receptacular cavity into as many compartments as 

 there are fruits in Siparuna and certain otlier 

 Monimiaceee. The down on the surface of the 

 pericarps is much less dense, and the marginal 

 projections are far less marked than in Caly- 

 cantlms. 



2 Wight, Icon., vi. 14, t. 1997, 1998.— Aen., 

 Mag. of Zool. ayul Bot., ii. 545. — Endl., Ge«., 

 n. 4733.1— Hook. & Thoms., Fl. Ltd., i. 166.— 

 Ttji., Hon. Monimlac, Arch. Mits., viii. 425. — 

 A. DC, Prodr., xvi., s. post., 642,671.— II. By., 

 Adansonia, ix. 122, 130. 



■^ Some are altogether female (Ttjl., loc. cif.), 

 possessing no fertile stamens. There are, on the 

 other hand, entire branches whose flowers have 

 well-developed stamens, while the gyna^ceum 

 is only represented by little conoidal sterile 

 bodies. 



■• It is sometimes gourd-shaped, like a sac with 

 a somewhat contracted orifice, just as in the Roses 

 and certain sjiecies of Calg cant hits. But its depth 

 is especially dej)endent on the organs contained 

 in its interior. The fewer the carpels the less 

 marked is the concavity of the receptacle even iu 

 the female and hermaphrodite flowers. In the 

 male flowers it is reduced to a cupule of very 

 slight concavity, in H. acuminata, for instance. 

 The flower then comes peculiarly near that of cer- 

 tain Anonads, near which Ilortonia was first 

 placed, vvhile the flowers with very deep receptacles 

 closely recall those of Peumus and Chimonanthus. 



