4 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



Agelcea? formerly confounded with Connarus, is only distinguished 

 from it hy characters of very slight importance. The leaves are 

 always trifoliolate ; the calyx persists around the fruit, without, how- 

 ever, being closely applied, as in Connarus, to its foot, which is here 

 shorter, or even quite wanting. The petals and stamens offer several 

 variations in form and size. 



To the genus Agelcea botanists are generally agreed in adding 

 Hemiandrina °~ which consists of plants from India and the Indian 

 Archipelago, whose flowers are usually trimerous or tetramerous, and 

 only rarely pentamerous, with the petals narrow and elongated, and 

 the sepals valvate, or scarcely imbricate in the bud. 3 Thus consti- 

 tuted, the genus Agelcea consists of half a score species 4 from the 

 tropical regions of the Old World, namely, Guinea, Madagascar, 

 India, and the Indian Archipelago. They are bushy shrubs, erect 

 or climbing, with trifoliolate leaves, whose lateral leaflets are un- 

 symmetrical, and with usually numerous flowers in axillary or lateral 

 ramified racemes of cymes. 



Roured (Fr., Rourelle), with all the floral characters of Connarus, 

 differs from it in the two following points : — The carpels, variable in 

 number, which go to form the fruit, are sessile instead of possessing 

 a slender foot; and the calyx begins enlarging around them from the 

 moment the fruit sets, so as to hide it more or less completely. 

 About two score species are known, trees or shrubs (sometimes 

 climbing) from tropical Asia, 6 Africa, 7 and America. 8 The leaves are 



1 Soland., ex Pl., in Linncea, xxiii. 437. — 

 B. H., Gen., 432, n. 3. — H. By., in Adansonia, 

 vii. 237. 



2 Hook. F., in Trans. Linn. Soc, xxiii. 171, 

 t. 28. — Troostwyckia Miq., Fl. Ind.- Bat., 

 Suppl., i. 531 ; in Ann. Mus. Lugd.-Bat., iii. 

 88.— B. H., Gen., 434, n. 12. 



3 J. Hooker has made use of these variable 

 characters to split up Agelcea into rive sections, 

 characterized as follows: — "1. Petala libera. 

 Stamina 5 libera inclusa. — 2. Petala libera. 

 Stamina 10 basi breviter connata exserta. 

 Ovaria 5. — 3. Petala leviter conisata. Stamina 

 10 basi connata exserta. Ovaria 5. — 4. Petala 

 libera. Stamina 5 libera; filament is scepe apice 

 recurvis ; antherarum loculis demum conflven- 

 tibus. Ovaria 3-5. — 5. Pelala libera. Sta- 

 mina 10 libera; antheris recurvis exlrorsum 

 spectanlibus (Hemiandrina)." 



4 DC, Prodr., ii.' 86. — Deless., Icon., 

 Select., iii. 35, t. 53. — Tuep., in Diet, des 



Sc. Nat., t. 276.— Walp., Ann., ii. 305.— 

 II. By., loc.cit., 240. — Baebb, /".-. <■:/., 15:5. 



5 Rourea Aubl., Guian., i. 167, t. 187. — 

 J., Gen., 3(i9.— Lamk., Dirt., vi. 317.— B. II., 

 Gen., 432, n. 4. — H. By., in Adansonia, vii. 

 228. — Rubergia Schreb., Gen.,ZQy.— Canicidia 

 Velloz., Ft. Flum., iv. t. 129. — Bowreopsis 

 Pl., in Linncea, xxiii. 123. — Connari spec. DC, 

 Prodr., ii. 85. — Kndl., Gen., n. 5948. — 

 ? Santaloides L., Fl. Zeyl., n. 108. 



6 V t ahl., Synth., iii. 87. — Wight & Akn\, 

 Prodr., 1 14. — Hook. & Akx., Pot. Beech. Toy., 

 179.— Miq., Fl. Ind -Bat., i. p. 2, G57; Suppl., 

 i. o^S.— Bl., op. ciL, 2 - 



7 Pal. Bbaxtv.,^. Ow. e.t Ben., i. 98, t. 60.— 

 H. Bn., he. cit., 230-232; viii. 198. — Bakj k, 

 loc. cit., 155. See also for the species of 

 different countries, Pl., in Linncea, xxiii. 413. — 

 Wai.p., Ann., ii. 295. 



& Gbisbb., Fl. Brit. W. Ind., 22S.— Pl., loc. 

 cit., 414. — II. B.v., La Adansonia, ix. 149, n. 



