402 



XATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



for eacli ovule, and Inter, for each seed. Hence the fruit (either 

 alto|^etlier fleshy, or provided with a membranous or parchment-like 

 endocarp), is divided into twice as many one-seeded incomplete 

 divisions as there are remains of withered styles at its apex. The 

 genus consists of three or four species of shrubs or bushes from the 

 south of Europe, the East, Japan, and North America/ The leaves 

 are alternate simple and caducous, often downy ; the petiole may or 

 may not possess two lateral stipules. The flowers are axillary to 

 narrow caducous bracts, and form corymbose or elongated cymes. 



Osfeomele-s- also possesses the perianth and androceum of the 

 preceding genera. The gynseceum consists of five carpels which are 

 externally just like those of Cratcegus or Mesjnliis. But each ovary 

 only contains a single ovule, nearly erect, with its micropyle out- 

 wards and downwards. The fruit is a drupe containing five one- 

 seeded stones, either separate, or in contact and cohering to one 

 another. The genus Osfeomeles consists of trees or shrubs with 

 alternate stipulate leaves, and flowers in simple or compound 

 corymbs. About half a dozen species from the Andes of Central 

 America' have been designated under the special name di Hespero- 

 melcs* and are easily distinguished by their simple leaves from the 

 prototype of the genus Osfeomeles,^ a native of the Sandwich Islands 

 possessing pinnate leaves, but not differing in flower or fruit. 



Finally, in the perianth and androceum of CliamcBmeles^ we find 

 all the floral characters of CratcBgus. But in the bottom of its con- 

 cave receptacle is seen only one carpel whose ovary, free only in its 

 upper part, bears a vertical groove up one side, continued the whole 

 length of the style. Corresponding with this groove, inside the 

 one-celled ovary, is a parietal placenta, towards the base of which 

 are inserted two nearly erect collateral ovules, whose raphes look 



a thill endocarp and the ovary-cells subdivided 

 by false dissepiments (see p. 398, note 4). There 

 are, on the contrary, plants which, like the Fiery 

 Thoni {Cralagim -pyracantha Pees., Fr.,JBuisson- 

 ardent), are nearly inseparable from any of the 

 three genera Crata-gus, Amelanchler, or Coton- 

 eatter. 



> LiNDL.. Bot. Keg., t. Il7l, 1589.— SlEB. 

 & Zccc, Fl. Jap., t. 42.— MlQ., Ann. Mus. 

 Lvgd. Bat., iii. 41 .— ToRR. & Gk., Fl. N. Amer., 



i. 473. — \. Gray, Man. of Bot., ed. v. 162. 



Chai-m., Ft. S. Unit.-States, 129.— Gren. & 

 GoDR., Fl. de Fr., i. 575. — Walp., Rep., ii. 

 C5; \. fi60; Ann., ii. 522. 



* LiNDL., Trans. Linn. Soc, xiii. 98, t. 8. — 

 DC, Pi-odr., ii. 633.— E>T)L., Gen., n. 6343.— 

 B. H., Gen., 628, n. 71. — Eleutheroearpum 

 ScHLTL., exs. Peruv. Lechl., n. 2060. 



^ H. B. K., Nov. Gen. et Spec.,v\. 166, t. 553, 

 554.— Wedd., Chlor. And., ii. 229.— Hook., 

 Icon., t. 846.— Walp., Rep., ii. 56; Ann., iv. 670. 



•• LiNDL., Bot. Mag., n. 1956.— Endl., Gen., 

 n. 6348. 



5 O. anthylUdifoUa LlNDL., loc. cU.—Pyrus 

 anthi/Uidifolia SMITH, Rees Cyclop., n. 29. 



^ LiNDL., Trans. Linn. Soc, xiii. 104, t. 11. 

 —DC, Prodr., ii. 631.— Enul., Gen., n. 6351. 

 — B. H., Gen., 628. n. 69. 



