8AXIFBAQAGEJE. 



341 



rudiments of the sexual organs and corolla. To make up for this the 

 calyx is enormously developed, formed of four or five large coloured 

 veined petaloid sepals. In the fertile flowers it is short, consisting of 

 four or five little tooth-like sepals, inserted on the rim of the receptacu- 



Ilydrangea quercifolia. 



1 f>] cSp 



Fig. 392. 



Flowering branch (i). 



Fig. 393. 

 Flowers, sterile and fertile. 



lar sac. When its parts are large enough they are imbricate in the bud. 

 The petals, inserted like the sepals, are alternate with them, free, and 

 valvate in the bud. The stamens are what is termed epigynous, 

 inserted outside a glandular disk surmounting the ovary. Four or 

 five are superposed to the sepals, and as many to the petals. Their 

 filaments are free and bear short two-celled anthers dehiscing by 

 introrse or marginal longitudinal clefts. 1 The ovary, sunk in the 

 concavity of the receptacle, only springs from it towards its apex, 

 surmounted by a style with two or four branches ; these are stigmat- 

 iferous above or inside their extremities. There are as many 

 parietal placentas, which often meet and unite along the axis of the 



21. — Endl., Gen., n. 4668. — Payee, Fam. Nat., 

 87 — B. H., Gen., 640, n. 22. — H. Hn., in Adan- 

 sonia, i. 371; vi. 11. — Lem. & Decne., Tr. Gen., 

 263. — Peautia Coiimees., mss. — Horiensia 

 Commees. (ex J., loc. cit.). — Lamk., Diet., iii. 

 136; Suppl., iii. 59; III., t. 380.— Primula 

 Loue., Fl. Cochinch., 127 (nee Auctt.). — Cor- 

 nidia R. & Pav., Pro- 1 K ~ 35 ; Fl. Per. et 



CHI., iv. t. 335 (ined.).— Endl., Gen., n. 4671.— 

 Sarcostyles Peesl, Pel. Hcenk., ii. 53, t. 60. 



1 The pollen grains are small and ellipsoidal in 

 H. radiata and in Hortensia speciosa, another 

 species of this genus. When moistened they 

 become ovoidal, with three bands. (H. Mohl, in 

 Ann. Sc. Nat., ser. 2, iii. 331.) 



