310 NATURAL IIISTOIiY OF PLANTS. 



rcceptiick' loriiis ii rather deep pouch, and in its somewhat con- 

 tracted mouth is inserted the perianth. This consists of about half 

 a dozen free elongated nearly petaloid caducous leaves, imbricated in 

 a'stivation. Internal to these are the indefinite stamens, arranged 

 in a spiral, making several very close turns. The outermost of 

 these stamens are fertile, their number varying ; while the inner 

 ones are sterile, becoming shorter and shorter. Each fertile stamen 

 consists of a flattened filament, laterally dilated into two acute 

 membranous petaloid appendages, and of an anther with two slightly 

 introrse adnate cells, above which the connective is continued into 

 a long subulate point. Each cell opens by an oval valve, which is 

 soon uplifted ; to its hinge is attached an obtuse scaly projection 

 (fig. 859). The inner stamens have the same form, with a long 

 ligulate connective, lateral appendages, and a dilatation answering 

 to the anther ; but the deformed cells no longer contain pollen, and 

 there are no valves for dehiscence. Finally, the smallest stamens 

 are quite rudimentary, reduced to short fleshy scales, without lateral 

 ap})endages or terminal processes. The indefinite carpels are inserted 

 towards the bottom of the receptacular cavity. They are free, and 

 each consists of a one-celled ovary, surmounted by a linear style 

 inserted more or less on one side, covered with hairs and taper- 

 ing towards its stigmatiferous apex. In the ovary is a basilar 

 placenta supporting a nearly erect anatropous ovule, whose micro- 

 pyle looks downwards and outwards. The fruit is said to resemble 

 that of Atkerosperma. Of this genus only one species is known,^ a 

 tree from eastern Australia, aromatic in every part. The leaves are 

 opposite, exstipulate ; and to them the flowers are axillary, in 

 bunches of biparous cymes, with opposite ramifications axillary to 

 caducous bracts. 



The geivM^ Atherosperma^ (figs. 360-370), which has given its name 



known. Perlwps, too, its characters will have to link between the genus Atherosperma, as we now 



be iiiodificil after the study of the flowers of a limit it, and the genus Doryphora ; in its vege- 



j)liint which we have described {Adansonia, ix. tative organs it recalls the section Laurelia of 



l4jc. cit., note 1) under the name of D. 1 Vieil- the former genus, rather than the latter. 

 Ian/!, find have only referred to this genus with ' D. Sassafras Endl., loc. cit. — Walp., Am. 



some hesitation. I'erhaj)* it is the type of a new iv. 120.— Likdl., Veff. Kingd., 300, fig. ccviii. 

 genus cliaracterized by its campy lotn .pons ovary. -' Labill., Nouv.-Holl., ii. 74, t. 224.. — Endl., 



Enduciier has, indeed, described the insertion Gen., n. 2020. — Tui., Mon., 418, t. xxiv. — A. 



of tlie style as lateral and subbasilar, but lias DC, Prodr., xvi. s. post., 642, 675.— H. Bn., 



tignrcd a rectilineal, not a curved, ovary. Per- Adansonia, ix. 122. 

 haps the new plant in question will serve as a 



