ni: 



XATUBAL m STORY OF PLANTS. 



clilVt'i-t'iice is that tlie extrorse anthers lack the acute prolongation of 

 the connective. The other, which has been longer known, has larger 

 flowers, but usually with the sexes separate ; it is called J. moschata} 

 (ti^'s. 300-3G5). The receptacle is like a sac, shallower in the male 

 flower. Towards its edges are inserted in a spiral a variable number 

 of imbricated, more or less petaloid leaves/ Internally to these the 

 male flowers present an indefinite number of free stamens, inserted 

 nearly down to the bottom of the receptacular cup, each consisting 

 of a filament possessing two lateral appendages at the base, and sur- 

 mounted by a truncate extrorse anther, each of whose two cells dehisces 

 by the lifting up of a valve. In the female flower the stamens are 

 only represented by some sterile imbricated scales internal to the 

 perianth.^ At the bottom of the cup" are inserted numerous carpels^ 

 whose unilocular ovaries are each surmounted by an acute style with 

 a sharp stigmatic summit, and covered with silky hairs (fig. 365). 

 The single cell of the ovary contains a nearly basilar ovule, whose 

 mieropyle looks downwards and outwards. The fruit consists of a 

 large number of achenes,^ which are surrounded below by a large 

 woody capsule formed by the indurated receptacle. The pericarp 

 and a long point surmounting it, formed of part of the style that 

 has grown hard, are covered with long hairs, giving them a plumose 

 appearance. This pericarp is thin and membranous, closely applied 

 to the seed, which contains within its very thin coat a copious oily, 

 fleshy albumen, its base occupied by a small embr3^o with superior 

 divaricating cotyledons. The two known species of Atherosperma are 

 large aromatic trees from the east and south of Australia ; and A. 

 woschata is also found in Tasmania. The leaves are opposite, entire 

 or dentate ; the flowers are axillary, solitary or in simple or ramified 

 cymes ; in J. vioschata each flower is accompanied by two opposite 

 bracts, whose edges are close together when young, and which form 

 a sort of calyx to the flower-bud (figs. 360, 361, 363, 364). 



' Labili... loc. cU.—A. DC, Prodr., loc.cit., 

 670, n. 1.— Hook. F., Fl. Tasm., i. 42,— A. in- 

 tegrifolium A. Ccnn., ex TuL., loc. cit. 



• They are arranged in two rows, not well 

 marked out, it is true ; and as tliere are often 

 ciglit leaves, the four outer ones are more like 

 HCpals, and tlie inner arc better developed 

 and more pcUiluid. In tine, between these 

 we find almost the sanie i)rogressive dissimilarity 

 an we do between the tloral appendages, re- 



spectively called sepals and petals in the Cal^- 

 cunthecB. 



•* These scales become far more visible in an 

 impregnated flower (as represented in figs. 363, 

 364), after the perianth -leaves have fallen off or 

 withered. 



■* This is much deeper here than in the male. 



* In several species of the genus it would pro- 

 bably be better to call them caryopsids, as we 

 have said in Adaiisonia, ix. 125. 



lit 



