FHYTOLACCACEJE. 



35 



Petiveria alliacea. 



climbing, with alternate, petiolate, simple, exstipulate leaves. 1 The 

 flowers are united in terminal racemes, which, in consequence of the 

 :< usurpation " of the axillary branches, appear lateral or leaf-opposed. 

 Each occupies the axil of a bract, and is accompanied by two lateral 

 bractlets raised sometimes as far as the calyx. 



Beside Rivina are placed Mohlana and Ledenbergia, which have 

 the same gynaeceum and an analogous fruit with a more or less 

 coriaceous pericarp. But the Mbhlanas? plants of both Worlds, 

 of which four species 3 are known, have four stamens and an irre- 

 gular perianth, the anterior leaf being nearly free, while the 

 three others are united into a sort of posterior lip. 4 Ledenbergia, 6 of 

 which a suffrutescent climbing American 

 species 6 is the only representative, has 

 numerous stamens and a regular tetra- 

 merous calyx ; but its lobes grow and 

 spread themselves round the fruit in a 

 large, rotate, tetraplryllous, dry and reti- 

 culate indusium. 



Petiveria 1 (figs. 51, 52) has also tetra- 

 merous apetalous and hermaphrodite 

 flowers. But the receptacle is concave, 

 and the sepals, imbricated and inserted 

 upon the edges, are placed two in front 

 and two behind. The stamens perigynous 

 like the sepals, alternate with them when 

 the same in number; but there may be also 

 from one to four besides, which are super- 

 posed. All are composed of a subulate fila- 



Fig. 51. 

 Floriferous branch (i). 



1 Or little developed. 



2 Mart., Nov. Gen. et Spec. Bras., iii. 170. — 

 Endl., Gen., n. 5256. — Moq., Prodr., xiii. sect. 

 ii. 15. — Seller la Velloz., Fl. Flum., i. t. 122. 

 — Mancoa Rafin., Fl. Tell., n. 632 (nee 

 Wedd.). 



3 Ruiz et Pat., Fl. Per., i. 65, 1. 102 {Rivina). 

 — Poir., Diet., vi. 215, n. 5 [Rivina). — Schum. 

 et Thonn., Beslcr., 84, n. 1. — Hook., 7c, t. 130 

 (Rivina). 



4 They have been divided into two sections, 

 according as their fruit is dry, or scarcely fleshy, 

 nerve-reticulated, marginate (Hilleria) ; or more 



or less fleshy, without a plexus of nerves and 

 without border (Alohlanella). 



5 Kl., in Herb. Karst. (ex Moq., Prodr., xiii. 

 sect. ii. 14). 



6 L. seguierioides Kl. — Rivina seguierioides 

 Kl. Found in the Antilles and in neighbouring 

 regions of the mainland. 



7 Plttm., Gen., 50, t. 39.— L., Gen., n. 459 ; 

 in Act. Holm. (1744), 287, t. 7.— J., Gen., 84 — 

 G.ektn., Frnet., i. 364, t. 75, fig. 2. — Lamk., 

 Bid., v. 223; III., t, 272, 1.— Endl., Gen., n. 

 5255. — Payer, Organog., 302, t. 62. — Moq., 

 Prodr., 8. 



U 2 



