bebberidacej:. 



57 



Epimedium (Aceranthus) 

 diphyllum. 



simple or compound, racemes. The plants are natives of the tem- 

 perate regions of Asia, Europe, and the North of Africa. 1 



In Nandina,- which has sometimes been made the type of a small 

 distinct group, the floral verticils are 

 trimerous and numerous, formed of leaves 

 arranged in six radiating rows. They are 

 imbricated and become larger and more 

 membranous and coloured as they are inserted 

 higher up on the receptacle. Above these 

 are six stamens, each superposed to a 

 perianth leaf, and formed of a short filament 

 and a basifixed anther, whose two lateral 

 subintrorse cells dehisce each by a longitu- 

 dinal cleft. The gynaeceum is nearly that of a 

 Berberis, with an ovary whose 

 parietal placenta usually bears 

 only two 3 nearly collateral 

 obliquely ascending ovules, 

 whose micropyles look down- 

 wards and outwards. The 

 style forms a slender hollow 

 cornet, whose mouth is in- 

 cised into fringed stiomati- 

 ferous lobes. The fruit is a 

 berry, containing one or two seeds formed like those of Leontice. 

 N. domestica, the only species 4 of this genus is a Chinese and 

 Japanese shrub, with erect stems and alternate bi- or tri- 

 pinnatisect leaves. Its flowers form terminal or leaf-opposed 

 ramified racemes of cvmes. 



Fig. 69. 



Flower (f ). 



Fig. 68. 

 Habit. 



1 Sibth., Fl. Grcec, t. 130. — Reichb., Ic. 

 Fl. Germ., Hi. t. IS. — Jacqttem., Yoy., Bot., t. 

 8. — More. & Dcne., in Ann. Sc. Nat., ser. 2, ii. 

 317, t. 12, 13.— Geen. & Gode., Fl. de Fr., i. 

 55.— Boiss., Fl. Or., i. 101. — Coss., in Bull. 

 Soc. Bot. de Fr., ix. 167.— Bot. Reg., t. 1906 ; 

 (1840), 43.— Bot. Mag., t. 3745, 3751, 4456.— 

 Walp., Rep., i. 100; v. 18; Ann., i. 19; ii. 23; 

 vii. 74. 



2 Thunb., Diss. Nov. Gen., i. 14; Fl. Jap., 

 9.— J., Gen., 329.— GiEETN., Fruct., ii. 69, t. 

 92. — Poie., Bid., Suppl., iv. 57. — Lamk., III., 



t. 261.— Banes, Ic. Kcemjof., t. 13, 14.— DC, 

 Frodr., i. 109. — More. & Dcne., in Ann. Sc. 

 Nat., ser. 2, ii. t. 12, fig. d.— Spach, Suit, a 

 Buffon, viii. 26.— B. H., Gen., 44, n. 12.— 

 H. Bn., in Adansonia, ii. 285. 



3 Sometimes three or four are found in two 

 vertical rows. 



4 Thunb., loc. cit. — Herb. Amat., t. 281. — 

 Bot. Mag., t. 1118. — Nandin K^MPF., Amcen. 

 Exot., 776. There are several cultivated varieties 

 of this species. 



