12 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



or suffrutesccnt, with alternate exstipulate leaves, and numerous 

 flowers disposed in large composite much ramified and terminal 

 racemes. 1 



The flowers of BougainviUecP (figs. 18-20) are tubular like those of 



Their summit is dilated a little into a limb 



Buh/ua and still longer, 



Bougainvillea spectalilis. 



T 



Fig. 19. 

 Flower and its bract. 



Fig. 18. 

 Inflorescence. 



Fig. 20. 

 Sexual organs. 



with five teeth, valvate-induplicate in the bud. The androceum is 

 formed of seven or eight included stamens, with slender filaments 

 monadelphous at the base (fig. 20). Their gynseceum is that of the 

 Nydaginacece generally, and their slender style is obtuse or swollen 

 into the shape of a club towards its stigmatiferous apex. 3 But what 

 particularly distinguishes this genus, is that its flowers are surrounded 

 by three petaloid leaves (figs. 18, 19), which have the form and figure 

 of cauline leaves and only differ from them in colour and consistency. 

 In Bougainvillea pro'per, each of these larger bracts has in its axil a 

 flower which is connate with it in a variable portion of its mid-nerve ; 

 while in Tricycla? generally made a distinct genus, there is only one 



1 



1 Eeichenbacfiia Mrsuta might doubtless be 

 considered as a section of tbis genus. Reiclien- 

 bachia hirsula (Spring., in Pull. Soc. PliiJom. 

 (1823), 54, 1. 1. — ESDL., Gen., n. 2009.— Chois., 

 Prodr., 439, n. 10). It is a Columbian plant 

 which has the organs of vegetation and the 

 flowers of JBoldoa, but its diandrous androceum 

 and the style are included. 



2 Cnos., Prodi:, 437. — Bugainvillea Com- 



mers., ex J., in Ann. Mus., ii. 275; Gen., 91. — 

 Gjertit., Fruct., iii. 206, t. 216. — Lame., 111., 

 t. 249. — Endl., Gen., n. 2008. — Schnizl., 

 Iconog ., n. 104. — Duciiatre, in Ann. So. Xat., 

 ser. 3, ix. 281, t. 16, 17.— Cnois., Prodr., 437.— 

 Josepha Velloz., Fl. Flitm., iv. t. 16. 



'■' The thickened short funicle forms a kind of 

 obturator to the ovule. 



4 CaV., Ic. Ear., vi. 79, t. 598; in Ann. 



