382 NATVnAL UTF^TOnY OF PLANTS. 



surmountctl 1)V a style wliicli is stigmatiferous, but scarcely dilated, 

 at the tip. In the ventral angle of each ovary is a placenta bearing 

 two collateral, descending, incompletely anatropous ovules, with 

 their micropyles upwards and outwards. The multiple fruit con- 

 sist.s of five drupes or fewer,' with a membranous epicarp and a thin 

 mcsocarp, at first fieshy, later floury and friable. The stone is 

 hard and one-seeded. Within the membranous seed-coats is con- 

 tained a large fleshy embryo with its radicle superior, surrounded 

 by a scanty albumen. The only known species of this genus is E. 

 kerrioidrs;- a shrub possessing opposite, petiolate, simple leaves, with 

 two lateral stipules, just like those of Kerria. The flowers are 

 solitary, terminal, and pedunculate. 



Ncviti.sia'' is a shrub with apetalous hermaphrodite flowers. The 

 receptacle Ibrms a shallow cup, lined by glandular tissue, and bears 

 on its edges a calyx of five large dentate leafy sepals, imbricated 

 in the bud. The stamens are very numerous, inserted within the 

 calyx, and analogous to those of Kerria and Bhodofi/pos. The gynae- 

 ceum consists of four free sessile carpels,^ inserted towards the 

 bottom of the receptacle, and each formed of a one-celled ovary, 

 surmounted by a slender incurved style, nearly terminal, and stig- 

 matiferous along the whole of its internal angle. Within the ventral 

 angle of the ovary is a single descending nearly anatropous ovule, 

 whose micropyle looks upwards and outwards. The fruit consists 

 of one or more drupes with thin mesocarps, surrounded by the 

 accrescent calyx. The embryo has a superior inflexed radicle and 

 flattened cotyledons, surrounded by fleshy albumen. N. alahamensi&' 

 is the only known species of this genus, a glabrous shrub with the 

 habit of several species of Spiraea. It has alternate simple' leaves 

 with two little lateral stipules. Its flowers^ are on rather long 

 slender pedicels, forming, as it were, few-flowered umbels terminating 

 the young branches. 



Finally, the genus Stephanandrd' may be defined as Spiraa with a 



' By n>K.rtion of one or more of the normal ■• More rarely two or three, 



rarpolit. Hut in cultivated plants we find ripe ^ ^ Gray, luc. cit., t. xxx. 



fniit.H with a larper number of drupes (see p. 381, « " Memhranacea dupUcato-serrata." 



""^« ^)- ' They are said to be white, like those of 



' SiEU. & Zrcc, loc. ri7.— Walp., Itep., v. lihoduiypos, 



0.58.— MlQ., Mm. Lugd. Bat., iii. 33. « Sieb. & Zucc, Ahhand. Miinch. Ahad., 



» A. Gray. Mem. Amer. Amd., n. ser., vi. iii. 739, t. 4, fisj. 2.— Endl., Oen., n. 6392', 



(1858) 374.— Aeriiwrt H.H., Uen., 613, n. 25. Suppl. iii. 102.— B. H., Gen., 612, n. 20. 



