46 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



with digitate, 3-9-foliolate leaves, and monoecious flowers grouped in 

 axillary racemes (fig. 37). ' 



Holballia laiifolia. 



Fig. 38. 

 Long. sect, of male flower. 



Fig. 39. 

 Diagram of female flower. 



Fig. 40. 

 Long. sect, of female flower. 



The genus Media (figs. 41-45) 2 is the least regular in this series. 

 The monoecious flowers lack a corolla, and though often possessing 

 three valyate coloured sepals, may have as many as six. The 

 androceum is formed of a variable number of stamens ; there are 

 very often six, three superposed to the sepals and three alternating ; 

 but this number is frequently increased or diminished. They are 

 free and club-shaped, bearing on their upper dilated part two linear 

 extrorse cells of longitudinal dehiscence. 3 The gynaeceum is rudi- 

 mentary in the male flowers, like the stamens in the females. But 

 these latter possess a variable number of carpels (from three to 

 twelve), which are free, each consisting of a multiovulate ovary, 4 

 surmounted by a short style with a dilated stigmatiferous apex. 

 The fruit is formed of large berries opening like follicles by an 



1 They are placed at the base of the young 

 twigs, axillary to the scales or undeveloped leaves 

 on the lower portion thereof. Higher up are 

 well-developed leaves, with only leaf buds in 

 their axils. The racemes are ebracteate; only 

 the axis is slightly swollen around the insertion 

 of the floral pedicel, which is articulated here. 

 The racemes bear only male or only female 

 flowers, or else a few females at the base, with 

 males above (fig. 37). 



2 Dcne., in Arch. Hus., i. 195, t. 13, A, B. — 

 Endl., Gen., n. 4791 b.— B. H„ Gen., 42, 

 n. 7. 



3 The pollen consists of whitish elongated 



grains, bearing from one to three longitudinal 

 grooves. 



4 The ovules have coats, and some become 

 finally anatropous, but most of them are hardly 

 quite so, or even retain the original orthotropy 

 that they have when the embryo sac already 

 forms a well-developed cavity in the nucleus. 

 They are inserted on the right and left walls of 

 the ovary, decreasing in age as they are more 

 distant from the ventral angle, where they first 

 appear, as in Solbodlia. The pulp surrounding 

 them is formed by the internal epidermic cells, 

 elongated into cylindrical or club-shaped, simple, 

 or separate hairs. 



