398 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



unisexual globular capitula. 1 In the males (figs. 475, 476) the 

 receptacle bears a large number of small flowers, each formed of 

 from three to six verticillate stamens, with very short, erect filament, 

 and an erect elongated clavate basifixed anther, possessing two lateral 

 cells of marginate dehiscence, 2 adnate to the connective, which is 

 prolonged above them into a truncate head. Around these stamens 



Platanus vulgaris. 



f (I ; : '' 







Fig. 479. 

 Composite fruit. 



Fig. 481. 

 Long. sect, of fruit (^). 



Fig. 480. 

 Single achene (|). 



are two kinds of appendages : first from three to six scales, with a 

 hairy tip, which are probably sepals ; and inside these as many or 

 fewer linear-clavate truncate bodies of greater length. The female 

 flowers, also sessile in the receptacle, have a perianth like that of the 

 males, but formed of three or four better developed leaves. Inside 

 these are as many clavate appendages, which would seem to repre- 

 sent staminodes, if we might judge from their clavate form, the same 

 as in the fertile stamens, only differing in the absence of anther-cells. 

 Alternating with these sterile stamens (?) are seen a variable number 

 of little glandular tongues, sometimes completely absent. Finally, 

 the centre of the flower is occupied by a whorl of from two to 



Nees, Gen., ii. 17. — Lindl., Teg. Syst., 187 ; 

 Veg. Kingd., 272.— Endl., Gen., n. 1901. — 

 Agaedh., Theor. Syst. PI,, 155, t. 13, figs. 1, 2. — 

 Schnizl., Iconogr., t. 97. — Clakke, in Ann. and 

 Mag. of Nat. Hist. (1852), 102, t. 6.— A. DC, 

 Prodr., xvi. sect. ii. 156. — Lem. & Dcne., Tr. 



Gen., 518. — H. Bn., in Adansonia, x. 

 fasc. 4. 



1 Exceptionally they are said to be polygamous, 

 the lower flowers becoming hermaphrodite. 



2 The pollen grains are ellipsoidal, with three 

 longitudinal folds. 



