22 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



free 1 petals, much longer than those teeth, and valvate in the bud. 2 

 The androceum consists of ten stamens, the five superposed to the 

 teeth of the calyx larger than those alternating with them. Each 

 has a free exserted filament 3 and an introrse two-celled anther, which 



Adenantliera pavonina. 



Fig. 16. 

 Flower. 



Fig. 18. 

 Diagram. 



Fig. 17. 

 Longitudinal section of flower. 



Adenanthera 

 pavonina. 



dehisces longitudinally, 4 and is surmounted by a prolongation of the 

 connective, forming a little caducous glandular ball. The gynseceum, 

 inserted in the very bottom of the receptacle, consists of a single 

 carpel superposed to one of the sepals. Its ovary, 

 subsessile free and one-celled, tapers above into a 

 slender style, scarcely dilated at the stigmatiferous 

 apex. Inside the cell of the ovary and opposite to one 

 of the petals 5 is a longitudinal parietal placenta, 

 whose two vertical lips bear each a variable number 

 of ovules in a row. 6 The}* are descending and anatro- 

 pous, with the micropyles upwards and outwards. 

 The fruit is a narrow elongated pod, straight or curved. 

 The pericarp opens lengthwise into two valves which 

 usually curl back, their inner faces presenting the ru- 

 dimentary false dissepiment which had hitherto sepa- 

 rated the seeds (fig. 15). These are thick and sublenticular, 

 containing in their coats a nearly horny albumen surrounding a 



Fig. 19. 



Longitudinal 

 section of seed. 



1 Their edges may sometimes stick together 

 for a variable distance. 



2 Or slightly imbricate near the apex. 



3 The insertion of the filament is peculiar, as 

 will be seen on referring to fig. 17. The corolla 

 and androceum rise in fact from the rim of a 

 little ohconical common tube, inserted below, and 

 external to the foot of the ovary ; and at the 

 same point conies oti' the base of the calyx, seated 

 < \ Ldently much lower down than the point where 



the stamens and petals separate, this peculiar 

 insertion of the floral verticils is yet more marked 

 in certain other Jlimosece. 



4 The pollen consists of a large number of free 

 grains, as is the case in all AdenantherecB in 

 which this point has been studied. 



5 Called the vexillary petal. 



6 There are five or six in each row in J. 



- L. {Spec, 550;— Jacq., Collect., iv. 

 212, t. SA;— IK'., Prodr., n. 1). 



