442 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



usually male, through the more or less complete abortion of the 

 gynaRceum. Some half-hundred species 1 have been admitted in this 

 genus, but the number should probably be reduced by half. They 

 occur in all the tropical regions of the globe. 



Gt/rocarpus americanus. 



carp 



VI. GYEOCAEPUS SEEIES. 



Gyrocarpus 2 has regular polygamous flowers. In the hermaphro- 

 dite (the rarest of all) we find a deep cup- 

 shaped receptacle, lodging the ovary in its con- 

 cavity, while its edges bear the androceum and 

 perianth. The latter consists of at most ten 

 leaves, five external 3 valvate, and five alternating 

 with these, and similar in form, size, and con- 

 sistency. But in certain flowers there are alto- 

 gether but three or lour of these leaves. The 

 stamens are sometimes as numerous as the outer 

 leaves, but are usually fewer in number (sterile 

 in the female flowers), each with one or two 

 elongated glands at the base, of variable form, 

 and consisting of a slender exserted filament, 

 and a swollen connective which bears on its 

 edges or inner face two cells ; each cell dehisces 

 by the raising of a valve. The gyna3ceum, 

 rudimentary in the male flower,' consists of a 

 one-celled ovary containing a single descending 

 anatropous ovule ; this is attached near the tup 

 of the ovary, and its micro pyle looks upwards 

 and inwards. The terminal style is slender, 

 with a more or less dilated stigmatiferous apex. 

 The fruit (fig. 269) is a drupe with a thin meso- 

 it is surrounded by the receptacle, and the perianth, most of 



Fig. 2G9. 

 Fruit. 



1 L., Spec, 35.— Sch. & Thonn., Beskr., 199. 

 — R. Br., Prodr. Nov.-Holl, 404. — Nees, in 

 PI. Preiss., ii. 619. — Hook., Fxot. Fl., t. 167. 

 Wiuht, Icon., t. 1847. — Behth. & F. Mtjell., 

 Fl. Austr., v. 308. — Schltl., iu Linncea, xx. 

 578.— Walp., Ann., i. 574. 



2 Gyrocarpus Jacq., Amer., 282, t. 178, 

 fig. 80. — G.ektn., FrucL, ii. 92, t. 97. — R. 

 liuoWN, Prodr., 404.— Bl., Nuc. Fam. Expos., 



15. — Nees, Prog. Lour., 20; in Wall. PI. 

 Asiat. Par., ii. 68; Syst., 699. — Endl., Gen., 

 n. 2068; Iconogr., t. 13. — Meissn., Prudr., 

 217.— B. H., Gen., 689, n. 14.— H. Bn., in 

 Adansonia, v. 187. 



3 Two are already larger than the rest at 

 itiillie.sis, and these it is that heeuuic the wings. 



1 In which tlie receptacle is rnueh shallower 

 than in the flowers with a fertile gynteceuui. 



