438 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



Tetranthera japonica. 



singly or in variable numbers from a little axillary bud ; they are 



more rarely united into a sort of raceme or corymb on a common 



leafless axis. 



Next to Tetranthera and Cylicodaphie come three genera with nearly 

 similar flowers enclosed in scaly buds. The 

 flowers are solitary in Dodecadenia, numerous in 

 Actinodapline and Litscea ; of these last two 

 genera the former has nine stamens, the latter 

 from four to six. 



Daphnidiirm, in other respects resembling 

 Actinodapline, has two- celled anthers. This is 

 also the case in Poli/adenia, Aperula, Lindera, 

 and Zaurus ; but in these the flowers are sur- 



Tetramerous male flower, rounc l e d, not by bud-scales, but by an involucre 



diagram. in 



comparable to that of Tetranthera. In Aperida 

 there are from six to nine fertile stamens, and the innermost 

 (from four to six) have lateral basilar glands. In Polyadenia all the 

 stamens possess these. In Linderc? (the Benzoin-plants), of which 

 an American species has long been cultivated in our gardens under 

 the name of Lauras Benzoin, 2 the flowers (figs. 25S-2G0) are dioecious, 



G) e o e i 



Fig. 257. 



Lindera Benzoin. 



Fig. 258. 

 Male flower (f). 



Fig. 259. 

 Female flower (*). 



Fig. 260. 

 Long, section of female flower. 



with a perianth of six caducous leaves. The stamens, sterile in the 

 female flower, are nine in number, all fertile introrse and two-celled, 

 in the male. It is usually only the three innermost that have the 



1 T 



Thunb., Fl. Jap., 9, 145, t. 21.— Endl., 

 Gen,, n. 6818.— Meissn., P.-odr., 243. — Ben- 

 zoin Nees, in Wall. PL Asiat. Bar., ii. 61, 63 ; 

 Syst, Am, 493.— Endl., Gen., n. 2057. 



" L., Sort. Cliff., 134 ; Spec, 1, 580.— W., 

 Spec, ii. 485. — Pitiisii, Fl. Amer. Sept., i. 27<;! 

 ■ — L. pseudo-Benzoin Mjchx., Fl. Bor,-Amer., 



i. 2 13. — Evosmus Benzoin Nutt., Gen. Amer., 

 i. 259, — Benzoin odoriferum Neks, Syst., I!i7. 

 — Lindera aestivalis Bl., Mus. Lugd.-Bat., i. 

 324. — L. Benzoin Meissn., Prodr., "ill, n. 1. — 

 Arbor virginiana cilrce- v. limoniifolia Commel., 

 /lor/. Atnst,, i. 181), t. 197.— PiUKK., Jlmay., 

 43, t. 13'J, fig. 3, 1. 



