478 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



parts of America. 1 Their branches are opposite, articulated at the 

 nodes. The leaves are opposite simple petiolate, each pair united at 

 the base, for a whole internocle, into a subcylindrica! sheath embrac- 

 ing the branch, and bearing above two stipules 2 on either side, often 



Hedyosmum arborescens. 



Fig. 521. 

 Stamen (f). 



Fig. 520. 

 Male inflorescence. 



Fig. 523. 

 Long. sect, of female flower. 



Fig. 524. 

 Fruit (\). 



Fig. 522. 

 Female flower {\). 



Fig. 525. 

 Long. sect, of fruit. 



persistent after the fall of the rest of the leaf. The male catkins are 

 solitary terminal, or grouped in terminal racemes, with opposite 

 divisions. The female flowers are in little cymes or glomeruli, 

 terminal, or again grouped into terminal racemes. In each cyme, 

 biparous or triparous, there are as many axillant bracts as there are 

 flowers, which by their union for some distance edge to edge form a 

 sort of little involucre around the partial inflorescence. 



1 W., Spec, iv. 476. — Speeng., Syst., iii. 

 865.— R. Be., in Bot. Mag., t. 2190.— Geiseb., 

 Fl. Brit. W.-Ind., 172.— Maet., Fl. Bras., 

 fasc. xi. — H. B. K., Nov. Gen. et Spec, vii. 126, 



165, t. 654, 655. — Don, in Fdinb. Rev., iii. 

 432.— Kabst., Fl. Columb., ii. 129, t. 168. 



2 Each of these is rather the free portion of the 

 stipule, which is united below with the petiole 

 and its fellow stipule into this sheath. 



