nOSACEJE. 



401 



sometimes more. In the former case, five will be exactly superposed 

 to the midribs of the petals, and as many to the midribs of the sepals : 

 while the ten others will alternate with them. Each consists of a free 

 filament, inflexed in the bud, and an introrse two-celled anther. The 

 gyna^ceum consists of a syncarpous inferior two-celled ovary sur- 

 mounted by a single style, which soon divides into two branches, each 

 swollen at the end into a stigmatiferous head. Towards the base of 

 the internal angle of each cell are inserted two descending ovules with 

 their micropyles downwards and outwards.' The fruit is a berry,^ 

 formed by the ovary and the lower part of the receptacular sac, which 

 persists around it, while the upper part comes off* after fecundation 

 in a circular piece, as in several Mon.imiacece, bringing with it the 

 withered calyx and androceum. There is generally only one ascending 

 seed, whose large embryo'' has hemispherical fleshy cotyledons. The 

 genus Rajjhiolepis consists of about four or five known species, trees 

 and shrubs from the east of Asia.^ Their simple, persistent, alternate, 

 petiolate leaves, each with its two lateral stipules, come very near those 

 of the Pears. Their flowers are in axillary or terminal simple or 

 ramified racemes, bearing little alternate caducous bracts, axillary to 

 which are the flowers, either solitary or in small cymes. 



AmelancJdef' approaches at once Pi/riis, Cratagus, and Bapliiolepi^, 

 possessing nearly the flower of the two former species, and the wholly 

 fleshy fruits of the latter. The sepals and petals are five in number, 

 and the androceum is that of most Pyre^B. But tlie gynseceum and 

 fruit present peculiar features to which too great importance has 

 perhaps been assigned. The number of carpels varies from two 

 to five, as in Eriohofrya, Cotoneaster, &c., and the ovary is wholly or 

 partiall}^ inferior. In each ovary are found two collateral ovules, 

 ascending as in the above genera ; but between these its wall pro- 

 jects to a variable extent" so as to form an incomplete chamberlet 



' They have also two coats. 



^ The flesh is generally pulpy and quite white, 

 whereas the epicarp alone is reddish, violet, or 

 blackish, the tint varying in depth. 



^ In certain species it is of a beautiful green 

 colour 



■* LiNDL., loc. c'd.- — Walp., Rep., ii. 57. ~ 

 SiEB. & Zucc, Fl. Jap., t. 85. — Hook., Bot. 

 Mag,, t. 5510. — Kocn, Ann. Mus. Lvrjd. 

 Bat., \. 250. — MiQ., Ann. Mm. Lugd. Bat., 

 iii. 41 ; Fl. Ind.-Baf., i. p. ], 388.— Bentti.. Fl. 

 Hongk., 107.— Seem., Bot. Her., 376. 



VOL. 1. 



' AmelanchierM^DiK., FJlanz. GesM. (1703). 

 — McENCU, Meth., 682. — Linul., Trans. Linn. 

 Soc, xiii. 100.— DC, Prodr., ii. 632.— Siwcir, 

 Suit, a Bttffon, ii. 82. — Endl., Oen., n. 6345. — 

 B. IL, Gen., 628, n. 70. — Aronia Pees., Spi., 

 ii. 39. — Peraphgllum Ntttt., e.\ Toer. & Gu., 

 Fl. N. Amer., i. -17 1. 



" Sometimes very slightly, so that this cha- 

 racter has but very little value, especially as 

 botanists are by no means agreed in placing in a 

 distinct genus {Nagelia) those species of Colon- 

 ra.tler which, like C. denlictdata, II. B. K., have 



DD 



