LEGUMINOSffl-CJESALPTNIEM. 137 



are ten in number, as in Copaifera; and all possess fertile two-celled 

 anthers unless some of the posterior ones are reduced to their fila- 

 ments. The gynaeceuni too resembles that of the Copaivas ; the 

 ovary contains two descending ovules, and the style ends in a point 

 or a peltate stigmatiferous dilatation. The fruit is as yet unknown in 

 the single African species possessing three pairs of leaflets referred 

 to this genus, and in one of the two Asiatic species, which has 

 usually several pairs of leaflets. But in the other Asiatic species, 

 whose stigma is peltate and whose leaflets are reduced to a single 

 pair, we observe a flattened pod, the lower part of which, flattened 

 and elongated, resembles a phyllode, the upper part alone dehiscing 

 to reveal a cavity containing a seed with fleshy embryo. Hardwickia 

 consists of three species of unarmed trees from tropical Africa and 

 Asia. 1 Their alternate paripinnate leaves possess from two to six- 

 leaflets apiece. The flowers form ramified racemes, and are 

 accompanied by scaly bracts and lateral bractlets. 



The flowers of Priorid 2 are very nearly those of Hardwickia. The 

 floral receptacle, not very greatly developed, 3 bears on its edges a 

 deeply five-lobed calyx, narrowly imbricated in the bud. Of the ten 

 free stamens five are superposed to the sepals, and five alternate with 

 them. The filaments are but slightly perigynous, 4 and the anthers 

 are introrse two-celled, and of longitudinal dehiscence, with a thick 

 apiculate connective. The gynseceum is inserted in the centre of the 

 receptacle. Its shortly stipitate ovary contains one or two descend- 

 ing ovules like those of Copaifera. The style is short and subulate 

 with an obtuse stigmatiferous tip. 5 The oblique orbicular-oval flat- 

 tened woody pod contains one descending seed, whose exalbuminous 

 embryo has thick fleshy coherent cotyledons, and a short thick radicle. 

 P. Copaifera Griseb., the only known species, is a large unarmed 

 tree from Central America and the Antilles. It has alternate pari- 

 pinnate leaves, with two or four leaflets and caducous scaly stipules. 

 Its numerous small flowers are collected into ramified spikes, termi- 

 nating the branches. Each flower, axillary to a little bract, is ac- 



1 Roxb., FI. hid., ii. 425. — Wight & Arn., tissue. Hence the perianth ami androceuni are 

 Prodr., 1. 284. — Oliv., Fl. Trop. Afr., ii. truly perigynous. 



315. 4 In the bud the filament is so indexed that 



2 Griseb., Fl. Brit. U r . Tnd., 215. — Benth., the anther is brought to the bottom of the re- 

 in Trans. Linn. Soc, xxiii. 390, t. 40. — B. II., ceptacle, between the insertion of its filament 

 Gen., 585, n. 3G3. and the short foot of the gynseceum. 



a It is, however, more concave than in the 8 The style is relieved in the hud ; its apex 



preceding genera, and is lined with glandular touches the back of the ovary. 



