LAURACE2E. 



431 



Aiouea tenella. 



and this last is elongated, and forms a large cornet, in the bottom of 

 which is at first hidden the gynseceum. The fruit is however 

 naked, for the perianth comes away with the upper part of the 

 receptacle in a circular piece after anthesis, and the 

 pedicel swells into a fleshy glanduliferous mass, as in 

 Alseodajihne (fig. 245). 



The genus Potameia 1 was formerly ill-known, and 

 wrongly referred to Proteacece; no doubt because of 

 its quaternary perianth and androceum. Only one 

 species is known, 3 a native of Madagascar. Its fruit is 

 naked, on a non-accrescent pedicel as in Machilus ; 

 but its flower is constructed on a binary type. On 

 the rim of the shallow concave receptacle are inserted 

 two sepals, opposite each other ; next come, more in- 

 ternally, two other leaves, which resemble the former 

 in size and colour, and represent the corolla. The 

 androceum consists of four stamens superposed to the 

 perianth-leaves, all introrse two-celled, with their fila- 

 ments much dilated and as it were petaloid below. 

 Two other stamens, each accompanied by two lateral glands at the 

 base, form a third whorl ; but these remain sterile. Those of the 

 fourth whorl are nearly always absent, or are only represented by 

 very short sterile scales. 



Fig. 245. 

 Fruit. 



II. CEYPTOCAEYA SERIES. 



Cryptocm-ycf has hermaphrodite flowers, formed like those of 

 Cinnamomum, if we look only at the upper part, possessing the same 

 perianth and the same androceum of twelve stamens, the three 

 innermost sterile, the others fertile (viz., six exterior introrse, and 

 three interior extrorse, and possessing two basilar lateral glands) ; 

 but their anthers are two-celled, and the floral receptacle is 

 much deeper, forming a thick-walled pouch, in the bottom of which 

 is inserted the gynseceum. And as this last, which in other respects 



1 Dcp.-Th., Gen. Nov. Madag., 16. — Endl., 

 Gen., 340 ; Suppl., iv. p. ii. SI. — Meissx., in 

 DC. ProJr., xiv. 328. — H. B>'., in Adansonia, 

 ix. 241. 



• See p. 400. 



s r. Thouarsii R(EM. & SCH., Syst., iii. 476. 



— Cansjera madagascariensis Spee>"G., Syst., i. 

 453. 



4 R. Be., Prodr. Nov.- Hid!., 402. — Xees, 

 Syst., 192, 2i>r,, 222, 675.— Fxdl, Gen., n. 

 2036.— Meissx., Prodr., GS, 507. 



