LAURACE.rJ. 



i.;:; 



Fig. 217. 

 Fruit. 



Fig. 2! 8. 

 Transverse section of fruit. 



Ravensara} (figs. 247, 248) has also the flower 2 of Crypfocarya, 

 with a receptacle that becomes thick and woody and closely sur- 

 rounds the fruit, which it 



encloses Completely. But this Ravensara aromaiica. 



receptacle presents a most re- 

 markable peculiarity. While 

 the fruit is enlarging inside, 

 six false septa, springing from 

 the inner wall of the recepta- 

 cular pouch, 3 grow in towards 

 the centre, where they finally 

 unite. The pericarp, seed- 

 coats, and even the embryo 

 itself, penetrated and pushed 



from without inwards by these, are so deformed as to be divided 

 into six lobes nearly all the way up. It is only at the apex that 

 the septa do not unite/ thus leaving entire the part of the seed 

 containing the tigellum, radicle, and attachment of the cotyledons. 

 This genus consists of trees from Madagascar, with alternate leaves 

 and inflorescences like those of Crypfocarya* 



Next to these come several other genera, which, with the flower 

 of Crypfocarya, have around the fruit a thickened persistent recep- 

 tacle, not septate, but distinguished by the details of the form of 

 those parts of the perianth and pedicel that persist around the 

 pericarp. These are Ampelodaphne, Aydendron, and Acrodiclidium. 

 In the two last the valves covering the anther-cells are very 

 small, and fall early ; so that the dehiscence has been thought 

 porricidal. 



The three genera Silvia, Endiandra (fig. 249), and Bictyodaphne 



1 SoNNER., Yoy. Ind, Or. (1782), ii. 101, 

 t. 103, fig. 2.— PoiE., Diet., vi. 81 ; III., t. 825. 

 — H. Bn., in Adansonia, ix. 243. — Agatho- 

 phyllum J., Gen. (1789), 431. — Schreb., Gen., 

 ed. 2, n. 1754.— Nees, Syst., 192, 231.— Endl., 

 Gen., n. 2038.— Meissn., Prodr., 109. 



2 The stamens are described as quadriloeellate 

 by most authors, notably by Meissneu. In the 

 flowers that I have analysed, they had only two 

 cells. 



8 Corresponding with the middle lines of the 

 perianth-leaves. 



4 They are here obliquely truncate downwards 

 and inwards. The septa are also wanting below, 



VOL. IT. 



for a very short distance corresponding with tha 

 insertion of the fruit on the base of the re- 

 ceptacle. 



5 Of the three or four known species the most 

 famous is the Yoaravendsara of FlACOURT 

 {Hist. Madag., 12">), the Ravensara, Ravin' 

 dzara of the natives, or Madagascar Spice (Up ire 

 de Madagascar). This is R. aromaiica I.a.mk. 

 (Diet., vi. 81 ; — Pees., Syn., ii. 1 ; — JEoodia 

 Ravensara G.ertn., Fruct., ii. 101, t. 103;— 

 Lame., III., t. 404, 825; — Agathophyllum a 

 maticiim W., Spec, ii. 812; — 1'on?., Diet., 

 Suppl., iv. 656;— El., Mus. Lugd.-Bat., i. :::::> ; 

 — Meissn., Prodr., 110, n. 1). 



