390 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



On the convex receptacle, passing from below upwards, are inserted 

 a calvx of* four free imbricated sepals, as many petals also imbricated' 

 in tliebud, and resembling those of the Eose, and an indefinite num- 

 ber of free livpogynous stamens arranged in many rows. Each consists 

 of a slender lilament and an introrse Iwo-celled anther," dehiscing 

 longitudinally. Around the summit of the receptacle are inserted on 

 one level the carpels, varying from five to fifteen in number. These 

 cohere below into an elongated many-celled ovary, above which they 

 become free to form tapering styles, stigmatiferous, but hardly, if 

 at all, dilated at the apex. In the internal angle of each cell are 

 inserted an indefinite number of descending anatropous ovules,^ in 

 two vertical rows; their micropyles look upwards and outwards. 

 1'he fruit is a capsule with a coriaceous mesocarp and a woody endo- 

 carp, which divide septicidally into as many divisions as there were 

 cells, each containing one or more compressed imbricated seeds, whose 

 chalazal region is prolonged into a membranous wing. Beneath the 

 integuments is a fieshy albumen of no great thickness surrounding 

 a green embryo, with its radicle superior and with flattened 

 elliptical cotyledons. For a long time only three species of this 

 genus were known. Two of these are natives of Chili; the 

 one^ has pinnate leaves, quite like those of the Eoses, but they 

 are opposite and persistent, with large interpetiolar stipules at 

 the Ijase. The second species' has, on the contrary, simple leaves, 

 with the stipules not well developed. The third species comes from 

 Australia ;'^ its leaves are also simple, but with large stipules. All 

 have solitary axillary pedunculate flowers, but towards the summit 

 of the branch, where the leaves are replaced by bracts with a flower' 

 in the axil of each, the whole inflorescence becomes a true terminal 

 raceme, with the flowers borne on opposite decussate pedicels, and 

 often very numerous and crowded.^ 



Htjpt^r., fi2.— DC, Prodr., i. 556.— Endi., Gen., 

 II. 5«n3.— Spach, Suif. d Buffon, v. 344, not. — 

 II. H.\.. Admisonia, v. 303. — B. H., Oen., 

 616, n. 33. — Carpodontvs Labill., Voy., ii. 16, 

 t. IS; PI. youv.-lIoU., ii. 122.— Chois., OB. «7., 

 61.— DC, loc. cit. 



' Or more riircly contorted. 



' Tlie two ( «'Il8 arc often i)em] ulcus, and only 

 (ittnclied above to the connective. 



' Or inconiiiji tely :mipliitn)]ion8. 



* K. tjlutinosit.—}:. pin» ilij'olia C. Cxx, Fl. 

 Chil., i.352, l.b {IMS). — Fogux fflutinosa Vcevp. 

 L Kndl., Nov. Qui. ef Sp., ii. f;8, t. I'J4(1838). 



^ K cordifolia Cay., loc. cit. — C Gay, op. 

 cit., 351. 



^ U. luckla {E. Billardieri SPAcn, loc. cit. — 

 Benth., FI. Austral., ii. 446. — F. Milligani 

 Hook. F., Fl. Tasm., i. 54, t. 8. — Carpodontos 

 lucida LA13ILL., loc. cit.). F. Mueller lias made 

 known {Fragm., iv. 2), another Australian species, 

 with pinnate leaves, ^. J/oorei (Benth., op. cit., 

 417, n. 2). 



<■ Helow the flower the pedicel may bear alter- 

 nate imbricate scaly bracts. 



^ We were the first to refer Eucryphia to the 

 Rosacece. Bentiiam & J. Hooker have now 



