404 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



flowers, grows in nearly all the temperate parts of Western Asia. 

 They are perennial herbs, in habit resembling Hemp. Every year 

 they produce glabrous aerial branches, covered with alternate im- 

 paripinnate or trisect leaves, simple above. The flowers are grouped 

 in cymes or glomeruli, either inserted in the axils of the leaves, or 

 collected on a little common axillary peduncle. 



Dalisca canndbina. 



Fig. 495. 

 Seed (f). 



Fig. 494. 

 Fruit dehiscing (±). 



Fig. 496. 

 Long. sect, of seed. 



To this group belong also Tetrameles and Octomeles, both with 

 dioecious flowers. In Tetrameter they are tetramerous. The males 

 have four stamens with short anthers, superposed to the perianth- 

 leaves. In the centre is a little four-lobed body, perhaps representing 

 a rudimentary gynseceum f these lobes alternate with the stamens. 

 In the females the receptacle is elongated, as in Datisca, and contains 

 an inferior ovary, with four multiovulate parietal placentas ; these 

 alternate with the perianth-leaves and the styles. The last are 

 stigmatiferous at the apex ; and the apex of the ovary is deeply 

 depressed between their bases. Here we early see traces of four 

 little grooves of dehiscence, alternate with the styles. The fruit is 

 capsular, the seeds unkown. As many as three species of Teiramehs 

 have been made, but there is probably only one. 3 It is a lofty tree 

 with alternate, oval or cordate, petiolate, caducous leaves. The 



1 B. Br., in DenTi. et Clapp. Narr., App., 25. — 

 Endl., Gen., n. 5015. — A. DC, Prodr., xv. p. i. 

 411. — B. H., Gen., 845, n. 2.— Anictoclea 

 Nimmo, in Grah. Cat. Bomb. PI., 252. 



a It has often been described as a disk. 



3 T. nudiflora B. Be., in Benn. PI. Jav. Bar., 

 79, t. 17.— Thw., Enum. PI, Zeyl., 252.— T. 

 rufinervis Miq., Fl. Ind.-Bat., i. 726; PI. Jun<jlt. 



