3-32 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



Their leaves, often persistent, are simple, alternate, or subverti- 

 cillate, exstipulate. The flowers are axillary, or more frequently 

 terminal ; solitary, or more frequently grouped in simple or 

 branching racemes, sometimes corymbiform (fig. 420.) 



Under the name of Hymenosporum 1 a distinct genus has been 

 made for the Australian species, P.jlavum? with flattened seeds, 

 edged by a wing ; we shall hence make it a distinct section. 3 



All the seven genera grouped in this series around JPittosporum 

 consist of Australian plants. In Bursaria and Marianthus the fruit 

 is a loculicidal capsule. In Marianthus* comprising spreading, 



Marianthus tenuis. 



Fig. 426. 

 Flower. 



Fig. 427. 

 Long. sect, of flower (|). 



flexuous, or twining undershrubs, the capsule is membranous or 

 slightly coriaceous, thick or more or less compressed, and many- 

 seeded. The genus comprises at present sixteen genera. 5 Bursaria, 6 

 which consists of two species of erect shrubs, 7 often spiny, has a 

 coriaceous, compressed, flattened capsule, with only one or two vert- 

 ical seeds in each cell ; and the flowers are white, small and numerous. 

 In most of the other genera, the fruit is indehiscent, usually with the 



1 F. MtTELL., Fragm., ii. 77. — B. H., Gen., 

 131, n. 2. — Benth., Fl. Austral., i. 114. — 

 Walp., Ann., vii. 236. 



2 Hook., in Bot. Mag., t. 4799. 



3 The petals taper below ; the style is hollow ; 

 the cells of the ovary are complete or incomplete. 



4 Hueg., Enum. PI. Nov.-HolL, 8. — Endl., 

 Gen., n. 5664. — H. Bn., in Adansonia, v. 2^7. — 

 B. H., Gen., 132, 973, n. 4. — Oncosporum 

 Putterl., Syn. Pittosp., 21. — Calopeialon 

 Harv., in Hook. Joum., vii. 52. — Rhytido- 

 sporum F. Muell., in Hoolc.f. Fl. Tasm., i. 39. 



5 Benth., FL Austral., i. 115. —Link, Kl. 



& Ott., Ic. PL, t. 12.— F. Muell., PL Vict., i. 

 75 ; Fragm., ii. 145.— Bot. Mag., t. 3893, 52:33 

 {Calopeialon). — Walp., Rep., i. 256; v. 72; 

 Ann., iv. 242 {Calopeialon) ; vii. 237. 



6 CAT., Icon., iv. 30, t. 350. — Endl., Gen., n. 

 5662. — H. Bn., in Adansonia, v. 287; in Payer 

 Fam. Nat., 350.— B. H., Gen., 132, 973, n. 3. 



7 Klatt, in Linnaea, xxviii. 568. — Benth., 

 Fl. Austral., i. 114.— Bot. Mag., t. 1767.— 

 Walp., Rep., i. 255 (part.); Ann., ii. 88; vii. 

 287. F. Mueller unites the two described species 

 into one. 



