BERBEBIDACi:.!;. 



49 



Berberidopsis corallina. 



-AY 



terminal racemes, which are sometimes umbellate. Each flower has 

 a pedicel which is articulated at the base, axillary to a bract, and 

 accompanied by two lateral bractlets. Seven or eight species are 

 known, one from Ceylon, the rest from the East Coast of Africa. 



The Chilian plant, 1 which has been named Berberidopsis curallitia, 

 appears to us to form a genus closely 

 allied to Erythrospermum. As in that 

 genus, the flowers (fig. 43) possess a 

 convex receptacle and a perianth of 

 from nine to thirteen leaves, imbricated 

 and arranged in threes, all coloured and 

 petaloid, and increasing in size as they 

 are more internal. Above them the 

 perianth is dilated into an irregular an- 

 nular disk. At this point 2 it bears from 

 seven to ten free stamens with short 

 filaments, and erect elongated introrse two-celled anthers of sub- 

 marginal longitudinal dehiscence. The ovary is one-celled, with 

 three parietal placentas, 3 bearing each several anatropous ovules ; it 

 tapers above into a short style whose apex bears three very short 

 stigrnatiferous divisions, alternating with the placentas. The fruit 

 is as yet unknown. Berberidopsis is a frutescent, slightly sarrnen- 

 tose plant, with alternate simple leaves, and terminal floral racemes. 



Erythrospermea may, from what has been described above, be con- 

 sidered as Berberidacea, whose carpels are united edge to edge into a 

 unilocular ovary. 4 



Fig. 48. 

 Long. sect, of flower fe). 



III. BERBERRY SERIES. 



The Berberry 5 (Fr., Vinetiier) has regular hermaphrodite flowers. 

 On the convex receptacle are inserted in due order from below 



1 Hook, f., in Bot. Mag., t. 5343.— B. H., 

 Gen., 964, n. 7 a. — H. Bn., in Adansonia, ix. 

 311. 



2 The disk having grown broader on its outer 

 edge when adult, the stamens are inserted on its 

 inner superior edge. 



3 J. Hooker has seen from two to four 

 ovules on each placenta, while we have counted 

 as many as fourteen on each. They become quite 



VOL. III. 



anatropous when adult, with two coats, and those 

 which are near one edge of the placenta look by 

 their raphes to those on the other edge. They 

 are sub-horizontal or ascending. 



* Hence they occupy in this order the corre- 

 sponding place to that of Monodora in Anonacece, 

 Canellea in Magnoliacece, &c. 



3 Berberis T., Inst., 614, t. 385.— L., Gen., 

 n. 442.— Adans., Fam. des PI., ii. 433.— J., 



E 



