434 



NATURAL IIISTORY OF PLANTS. 



Endiaudra virens. 



have only the three stamens of the third row ; their anthers are ex- 

 trorse. The outer stamens are found as scales, or little gland-like 

 masses, in the second of these genera. 



In Misanteca, too, these three stamens are 

 alone fertile ; but they are monadelphous. The 

 outer stamens are sterile and ill-developed, and 

 the flowers form capitula. 



The Bornean genus Bihania has nine petal- 

 loid sterile stamens, and the three stamens of 

 the third row fertile and extrorse ; the anthers 

 are said to have four cells instead of two. 



The anthers are also four-celled in Mespilo- 

 daphie ; but the whole nine outer stamens are 

 fertile, as in Oreodaphne, and the woody sac, varying in its depth 

 and in the height to which it surrounds the fruit, has a thick, single 

 or double, truncate rim. Mespilodap/ine may then be considered as 

 Cryptocarya, with anthers that open by four valves. 



\*°°j 



Fig. 249. 



Diagram. 



Ocoteafcetens. 



Fig. 250. 

 Fruit. 



III. OCOTEA SERIES. 



Ocotea* (fig. 250) has nearly the floral organization 

 of Cinnamomum, and is only distinguished therefrom 

 by a set of characters that would appear of slight 

 importance in themselves in any other order. But 

 these characters, taken together, may be made to 

 suffice for the foundation of an artificial series such 

 as is especially useful in the study of so homogeneous 

 a family as this. The concave receptacle, the perianth 

 androceum and gynaeceum, are in some species analo- 

 gous to the same parts in Cinnamomum. But the 

 staminodes (of the fourth whorl) are quite absent in 

 certain species, or when not quite absent are reduced to 

 little sessile scales. The flowers are sometimes herma- 

 phrodite, but are more frequentty, nay, nearly always, 



1 Atjel., Guian., ii. 780. — J., Gen , 80. — 

 Nees, Syst., 354, 371 (part.). — Endl., Gen., 

 n. 2054. — Oreodaphne Nees, in Linnaa, viii. 

 39; xxi. 515; Syst., 350, 380 (part.).— Endl., 

 Gen., n. 2052.— Meissn., Prodr., iii. 510. — 

 Petalanthera Nees, Syst., 342, 347. — Endl., 

 Gen., n. 204G. — Teleiandra Nees, in Linnaa, 



viii. 46 ; Syst., 355.— Endl., Gen., n. 20 18. — 

 Evonymud'jp/ine Nees, Syst., 244, 263. — Endl., 

 Gen., n. 2041. — Leptodaphne Nees, Syst., 354, 

 359 (part.).— Endl., Gen., n. 2049. — Adeno- 

 trachelima, Agriodaphne, Aperiphracta, Cera» 

 mocarpium, Ceramophora Nees (ex Meissn., 

 loc. tit.). 



