40 



NATVBAL niSTOBY OF PLANTS. 



convex receptacle bears two valvate sepals, anterior and posterior, 

 and an indefinite' number of free stamens, each formed of a slender 

 filament, and an elongated linear versatile anther, inserted towards 

 the lower part of its back upon the apex of the filament, bilocular, 



Thelygonum Ci/nocrambe. 



Fig. 63. 

 Male flower (f ). 



Fm. 64. 



Female flower (i). 



Fig. 65. 



Long, section of fruit ( f ). 



introrse, dehiscing by two longitudinal sublateral clefts. In the 

 female flower there is a little gamophyllous perianth at first tubular, 

 with a superior tridentate orifice. The enormous development which 

 afterwards takes place in one side of the ovary, makes the perianth 

 by which it is surrounded present on this side a great gibbosity. 

 The gynseceum is superior and unicarpellary ; it is composed of a one- 

 celled ovary and a lateral gynobasic erect style, swollen into a club 

 towards its stigmatiferous apex. In the ovary cell, quite close to 

 the base, is seen a placenta, which supports an almost erect campy- 

 lotropous ovule with inferior micropyle. The fruit becomes a mono- 

 spermous drupe, with a thin sarcocarp ; and the campylotropal seed 

 contains under its coats a curved embryo, with narrow incumbent 

 cotyledons, the cylindro-conical radicle with inferior apex being enve- 

 loped by a fleshy albumen more or less abundant. The only species of 

 this genus is T. Ci/nocrambe, 2 a small annual oleraceous herb, which 

 grows in the Mediterranean region. Its leaves are simple and petiolate, 

 the enlarged base of the petiole expanding on each side into a sort 

 of membranous incised stipule. The inferior are opposite, and the 

 superior alternate. The flowers occupy their axils arranged in small 



1 There are generally ten or a dozen, some- 

 times more. Their number can even be as small 

 as two or three. 



1 L., Spec, 144.— DC, Fl. Fr., iii. 399.— 

 Gren. ct Godk., FL de Fr., iii. 111. 



