M0NIMIACE2E. 



303 



thick, in this case seems to remain entire ; but more frequently it 

 tears vertically into four, five, or six equal or unequal strips, wliicb 



Tamhourissa elliptica. 



Tambourissa elUptica. 



*>i=c^ 



Fkj. 346. Fig. 347. 



Female flower (f ). Longitudinal section of female flower. 



then spread like a star, bearing on their inner surface the stamens 

 dehiscing and shedding their pollen (fig. 344). 



The female flower is fig-shaped ; its walls are thicker than in the 

 male with the apex usually more 

 depressed, forming a widely 

 open terminal " eye." The open- 

 ing of this sac-like recep- 

 tacle is cut up into projecting 

 festoons, usually of very unequal 

 sizes and somewhat inflexed. 

 These ill-marked lobings are the 

 vestiges of the divisions of the 

 perianth, and are better seen 

 when very young. The sac is 

 lined by an indefinite number 

 of carpels, extending from the 

 centre to a variable height on 

 its walls. Each carpel consists 

 of a one-celled ovar}^, tapering into a short style, dilated and stig- 

 matiferous at the apex. In the inner angle of the ovary is seen a 

 placenta bearing a single anatropous ovule,* whose micropyle looks 





f 



Fig. 348. 

 Part of the gynceceuni (\^). 



This ovule h.-xs two coats. Tlie exostome is the orifice of the endostomeprojectingslightly out- 

 traversed by a short tube, at the top of wliioh is side. Tlie sharp apex fits into the base of the'tube. 



