86 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



On its horizontally (fig. 57) or obliquely (fig. 58) truncate rim are 

 inserted the perianth and androceurn, while the gynfeceum springs 

 from the very bottom. The calyx consists of five unequal sepals 

 quincuncially imbricated in the bud. The corolla consists of as 

 many alternately imbricated petals, which may be equal, or nearly 

 so, to one another, or unequal, the vexillary petal becoming very 

 small or even disappearing entirely. In certain of the species the 

 petals are reduced to equal or unequal slender subulate tongues of 



Sclerolobiv.m (Cosymbe) Pceppigianum. 



Fig. 58. 

 Flower (f ). 



Fig. 59. 

 Longitudinal section of flower. 



nearly the same form as the filaments of the stamens. 1 These are 

 ten in number — five superposed to the sepals, and five shorter to the 

 petals. Each consists of a free, sometimes hairy filament, more or 

 less folded on itself in the bud near its apex, which bears an introrse 

 two-celled anther of longitudinal dehiscence. The gynaeceum consists 

 of a shortly stipitate ovary,- surmounted by a terminal style which 

 is tapering, truncate or slightly dilated at its stigmatiferous apex ; in 

 the angle of the ovary towards the vexillary petal are several de- 



1 This is the character of Sclerolobnnn proper, 

 as it was at first known to Vogel. The spread- 

 ing membranous petals, resembling those of 

 Leptolobium and Tachigalia, characterize a 

 distinct section, called Cosytnbe by Tulas>~e 

 (Arch. Mus., iv. 168), who is wrong in referring 

 it to the genus Tachigalia, for in this section we 

 find neither the elliptical mouth to the recep- 

 tacle nor the lateral insertion of the gynseceum 



of this last-mentioned genus. Chrysostachys . ? 

 glabra Pcepp. (exs., n. 2837) and Leptolobium ? 

 luteum Mart. (Herb. Fl. Bras., n. 1148) belong 

 to this section. 



2 Often covered with hairs analogous to those 

 of the disk and the lower part of the staminal 

 filaments. The direction of the foot of the ovary 

 is continuous with that of the pedicels (figs. 57, 

 59). 



