86 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



the uppermost are sterile, the rest formed of a recurved filament and 

 a descending anther. The carpels are numerous and multiovulate ; l 

 their styles are united into a short concave cone, cleft into as many 

 lobes as there are carpels, and stigmatiferous on the inside. The 

 fruit is a berry surmounted by the receptacular tube ; the contained 

 seeds are covered with prickles. The only known species, B. longi- 

 folia Wall., inhabits fresh water in Malaysia. From its short 

 rhizome spring petiolate, non-peltate leaves, and axillary (?) 

 ] -flowered scapes. 



In Euri/ale 2 (figs. 99-101) the floral receptacle forms a deep cup, 

 except in the centre, where its organic apex rises into a little erect 

 cone. On the rim of the cup are inserted the perianth and andro- 



_Ew rya le ferox. 



Fig. 99. Fig. 100. 



Seed without arille (f). Long. sect, of seed. 



ceum, resembling those of Nymphaa, and thus perigynous. The 

 carpels form a circle below, applied to the whole inner surface of the 

 receptacle, their inner superior edges form prominent rays, oblique 

 from below upwards and outwards, marking out a funnel-shaped 

 cavity in the centre of which projects the apex of the receptacle. 

 Eight on top of each ray is an obtuse projection, which has been 

 described as a stigma. The ovary is plurilocular, and on the 

 dissepiments are inserted the indefinite descending anatropous 

 ovules, with their micropyles turned upwards and inwards. 3 The 

 fruit is a spongy berry, covered outside with descending prickles ; 

 it bursts irregularly when ripe to free the seeds, surrounded by a 

 more or less pulpy sacciform aril. The double albumen, the embryo 



Griffith (Notul., i. 218, t. 57, f) repre- 47, 965, n. 6.— Anneslea Andr., Bot. Rep., t. 



Bents the ovules as orthotropous. 618.— Roxb., PL Coromand., iii. 244; Fl. Ind., 



- Salisb., in Keen. Ann. Bot., ii. 13.— DC, ii. 573 (nee Salisb., nee Wall.). 



Syst., ii. 48 ; Prodr., i. 114.— Spach, Suit, a 3 Thev have two coats, and on the apex of 



Buffon, vii. 166.— Endl., Gen., n. 5018.— Pi., the funicle is already visible a little ring, the 



in Ann. Sc. IS at., ser. 3, xix. 28.— B. H., Gen., first rudiment of the aril, just as in Nympha-a. 



