3^^ 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



Brai/era ahi/sshiica. 



!%\^ 



it is ileepcr, and in the bottom are inserted the ovaries, whose styles 

 alone pass through its aperture. The perianth consists of three 

 tetra- or j)cntanierous wliorls, with veined membranous imbricated 

 leaves. The outermost, though larger than the rest, yet constitute 

 a calvcle analo^fous to that of Leucosidea. Those of the middle 

 whorl are of the same consistency, but are shorter, and taper 



towards the base ; they form 

 the calyx. The innermost, 

 which are the petals, and may 

 be entirely absent, are short 

 linear caducous scales, or rarely 

 petaloid blades, as long as they 

 are broad, contracted at the 

 base and obtuse at the apex. 

 The stamens are inserted be- 

 tween the perianth and the 

 projecting rim of the disk. 

 They are about twenty in num- 

 ber, eacli formed in the female 

 flower of a short filament and 

 a little sterile anther ; in the 

 male flower of a long exserted 

 filament, originallv inflexed in 

 the bud, and an introrse two- 

 celled anther dehiscing longitu- 

 dinally. The fertile gynseceum 

 consists of two or more rarely 

 three free carpels, with one- 

 celled ovaries and terminal 

 styles, each dilated at the apex into a broad spathulate head, 

 covered with large stigmatic papilla?. In the internal angle of the 

 ovary is a descending incompletely anatropous ovule, whose micropyle 

 looks upwards and outwards.' The only species of Kousso as yet known 

 is Braijara afjysHinica,- a tree from the mountainous districts of Abys- 

 sinia, whose alternate downy branches are covered with the scars of 



Fig. 388. 

 Male inflorescence. 



' It linB not vet been possible to study the ahyssirdca Lake., Bid., Suppl., ii. 122; III., t. 



ripe fruit and setd. 311. — Brayera anthelminlica K., loc. cit. — 



^ Mi.Q.. But. Mrdic, 2\7.—Bankesia ahys- HoOK., Hook. Journ., ii, 349, t. 10. 

 s'inica liliiCE. op. cU., atl., t. 22, 23. — Jlayeina 



