SAXIFRAGACEJE. 



335 



surrounded by thin fleshy albumen. Two species of Penthorum are 

 known, 1 one Chinese, the other from the north-west of America. 

 They are perennial herbs, with erect stems and alternate, simple, 

 elongated, membranous-petiolate leaves. The flowers are small and 

 greenish, and form branching cymes, uniparous and scorpoid towards 

 the apex, terminating the branches. 



III. CEPHALOTUS SEEIES. 



The flowers of the genus Vami or Cephnhtus 2 (figs. 37S-381), are 

 regular, hermaphrodite, and monochlamydeous. The receptacle is 

 a shallow cup, lined by a layer of glandular tissue, studded with 

 papilla; and little glandular hairs. On its rim are inserted the six 

 triangular petaloid leaves 3 of the perianth. The androceum is diplo- 

 stemonous, consisting of six stamens alternate with the perianth- 

 leaves, and six smaller ones superposed to them. All are perigynous, 

 and inserted on the rim of the disk ; they consist of a free filament, 

 and a didymous, introrse, two-celled anther, whose connective is 

 thickened into a swollen, fleshy, cellular, dorsal process. The 

 gyna?ceum is inserted not far from the centre of the receptacle ; 4 it 

 is formed of six free carpels, alternating with the perianth-leaves ; 

 each is formed of a one-celled ovary, tapering into a recurved style, 

 stigmatiferous at the tip. In the ventral angle of each ovary, close 

 to its base, is inserted by a short-curved funicle, the single ascend- 

 ing anatropous ovule, 5 with its raphe dorsal, and its micropyle 

 looking downwards and inwards. The fruit is formed of six shortly 

 stipitate follicles, around which persist the receptacle and perianth. 



1 Torr. & Gr., Fl. N.-Amer., i. 561.— A. 

 Gray, Man., ed. 2, 141. — Chapm., Fl. S. Unit. 

 States, 150. 



2 Labill., PI. Nouv.-Holl., ii. 7, t. 145.— R. 

 Br., in Mind. Vbtf., ii. 601, t. 4; in Edinb. 

 Phil. Mag. (1832), 314.— Lamk., Diet., viii. 

 326.— Endi., Gen., n. 4628.— AG., Theor. Syst. 

 PL, 360.— B. H., Gen., 655, n. 73.— H. Bn., in 

 Adansonia, vi. 3. 



3 They are greenish-white, and perhaps repre- 

 sent a corolla. Without having seen the peri- 

 anth at its first origin, we have seen it very young, 

 and then its leaves were all of the same size, as in 



a corolla. Moreover, the large stamens alternate 

 with them (fig. 388), and are thus in the position 

 they occupy to the petals of other diplostemonous 

 Saxifragacece. 



4 Between the carpels the receptacle rises up 

 like the bottom of a wine bottle, projecting into 

 a little cone with an obtuse apex, inconspicuous 

 at maturity. R. Brown, in his figures of Cepha- 

 lotus, is wrong in drawing the carpels sometimes 

 in front of the perianth-leaves, sometimes alter- 

 nate with them. 



3 It is said that there are sometimes two 

 ovules j they have two coats. 



