114 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



Bocconia {Macleya) cordata. 



ceum that of Chelidonium or Stylophorum. But there are from eight 

 to twelve petals, each piece of both corollas being replaced by 



two or three unequal imbricate leaves 

 (fig. 1.29). The ovary contains two 

 multiovulate parietal placentas, 1 and its 

 style ends in two deflexed adnate stig- 

 matiferous lobes. The fruit dehisces by 

 two valves, which separate all down 

 their edges, leaving the seeds suspended 

 on the placentary frame or replum. 

 These seeds are formed as in the Poppies, 

 but the raphe has an arillary crest as in 

 Chelidonium. This species extends over 

 a great part of North America. 2 



In the genus Bocconia* (figs. 130-133) 



we see a greatly reduced type ; its 



flowers are apetalous 4 and its ovary 



pauciovulate. In Macleya? which 



cannot be separated from this genus, the 



two placentas, which stand right and left, 



bear each several ascending ovules 



with the micropyle downwards and 



inwards. But in Bocconia proper 



(fi^s. 131-133) only one of them bears on its lower part an almost 



basilar fertile ovule. 6 The stamens are indefinite/ or subdefinite 



in some species. 8 The fruit is like that of Sanguinaria, with one 



Fig. 130. 

 Inflorescence. 



1 Tbe ovules have two coats, and are finally 

 arranged in several rows on each placenta. 



» L., Spec, 723.— A. Gray, Man., 26.— 

 Chapm., Fl. S. Unit-Stales, 22.— Bot. Mag.,t. 

 162.— Walp., Hep., i. 109. 



3 Plum., Gen., 35, t. 25. — Adaxs., Fam. des 

 PL. ii. 431.— L., Gen., n. 591.— J., Gen., 236.— 

 G^etn., Fruct., i. 204, t. 44.— Lahk., Diet., i. 

 432 ; I.ll,, t. 394. — DC, Sgsl., ii. 89 ; Prod,:, i. 

 121. — Beenh., in Linnaa, viii. 460. — Spacii, 

 Suit, a Buffon, vii. 40, 42. — Endl., Gen., n. 

 4816.— B. H„ Gen., 53, n. 11. 



4 Payee has seen that the two imbricate or 

 twisted sepals (fij;. 132) "appear :lm>st simul- 

 taneously, and are lateral" (Organog., 218, t. 

 48). 



5 R. Be., in App. Benli. Sf Clapp., 218.— 

 Endl., Gen., n. 4817. 



6 The raphe at first looks towards the pla- 

 centa; later on it gets twisted, so that the raphe 

 looks to one and the inferior micropyle to the 

 other interstice between the placentas. 



" In Macleya cordata R. Be. {Bocconia 

 cordata W.) the androceum usually comprises 

 four whorls of six stamens each (Payee, loc. cit., 

 219, t. 48). 



8 " The andrcceum of B. frutescens usually 

 consists of but six stamens, that make their 

 appearance at two successive periods" (Patee, 

 loc. cit.). In the specimens from the Antilles 

 the stamens are often more numerous. 



