BEBBEBIDAGEjE. 



53 



of Europe, Asia, and both the American continents, especially of 

 the western mountainous regions of South America. 



Leo?itice l (figs. 58-60) has nearly the flower of Berberis, with six 

 or nine petaloid unequal imbricated stamens, and six shorter, thicker, 

 fleshier petals, concave on the inside. 2 The stamens, six in number, 

 are stationed and formed as in Berberis. The gymeceum is also 



Leontice (Gymnospermium) altaica. 



Fig. 58. 

 Flower (f). 



Fig. 59. 

 Long. sect, of flower (^). 



formed of a one-celled ovary, tapering above into a hollow st}de, 

 which is stigmatiferous at the apex ; but the placenta is nearly 

 basilar and central ; it bears from two to four erect anatropous 

 ovules, 3 with their micropyles downwards and outwards. The fruit 

 (fig. 60) is dry and vesicular, indehiscent, 4 or more or less widely 

 open above. 5 In the latter case the seeds become naked, each borne 

 on an erect funicle. Under the seed-coats, which are more or less 

 thick and fleshy, is a fleshy albumen of peculiar form, lodging near 

 its apex the embryo, protected more externally by an inward projec- 

 tion of the seed-coats. 6 



1 L., Gen., n. 423.— J., Gen., 287.— Lamk., 

 Diet., iii. 464 ; III., t. 254.— DC, Prodr., i. 

 109.— Endl., Gen., n. 4810 (part.).— B. II., 

 Gin., 43, 965, n. 10. — H. Bn., in Adansonia, ii. 

 277, 279, 285. — Leontopetalum T., Cor., 484. — 

 Lamk., III., t. 254, fig. 1. 



- They have often been described as glands or 

 nectaries. 



3 They have two coats. They are not all of 

 the same age. 



4 This is often observed in L. Leontopetalum 

 L., but the parenchyma interposed between the 

 ribs of the pericarp may be absorbed near its 

 apex, leaving very irregular breaches into the 

 fruit. 



5 This is the case in L. Eoersmanni Bge. and 

 altaica Pall., whereof Spach (Suit, a Buff on, 

 viii. 66) has hence made the distinct genus 

 Gymnospermium. The pericarp, broken open 

 above early, even before maturity, leaves the 

 seeds naked, and forms a sort of long frill around 

 the bases of their funicles. 



G We have shown (in Adansonia, ii. 278) that 

 outside the embryo are found five distinct layers 

 in the seed of L. Leontopetalum. The internal 

 seed-coat is thickened into a sort of rim around 

 the eudostome, a phenomenon which we have 

 compared with the development of an internal 

 arillode. This internal prominence of the endo- 

 steal? later on, crowns the radicle of the embryo. 



