400 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



XIX. MYOSUBANDRA SERIES. 



Myosurandrc? (figs. 482-488) has regular dioecious, naked tetra- 

 merous flowers, grouped in spikes or catkins. The male flower 

 consists of only four stamens, two antero-posterior, and two lateral, 



Myosurandra moschata. 



c uP 



Fig. 483. 

 Male flower (£). 



Fig. 482. 

 Male flowering branch. 



Fig. 484. 

 Diagram of male flower. 



inserted on a very small common receptacle ; each consists of a long 

 slender free filament, and a tetragonal, basifixed, introrse two-celled 

 anther of longitudinal dehiscence, surmounted by a subulate pro- 

 longation of the connective. There is no trace of a gynaBceum, nor 

 is any rudiment of stamens to be found in the female flower. The 

 latter (figs. 485-488) consists of a gynseceum, with a sessile elongated 

 ovary, traversed by four longitudinal grooves, and divided into four 



American species Spach (in Ann. Sc. Nat., ser. 2, he named P. vulgaris, comprising numerous forms 



v. 289) had reduced all the plants which had and varieties. 



already been held distinct species (notably P. } H. Bn., in Adansonia, ix. 325, t. 8, 9. 



orientalis L. and oecidentalis L.,) to one which 



