NYGTAGINAGEJS. 



Pisonia discolor. 



Fig. 14. 

 Flower (}). 



Fig. 15. 



Longitudinal section 



of flower. 



a cylinder more or less dilated above, where it divides into five valvate 

 lobes. More internally are five stamens, alternating with the divisions 

 of the perianth, exserted, united at the base, with introrse anthers, 

 and a gynreceum resembling that of Mirabilis. The fruit, surrounded 

 by the inferior portion of the 

 perianth which persists, is indu- 

 rated dry and monospermous ; and 

 the seed which it contains en- 

 closes under its veiy thin coats a 

 straight embryo with inferior 

 radicle and a not very voluminous 

 albumen. In the male flowers the 

 gynseceurn remains inconsiderable 

 or sterile, or occasionally dis- 

 appears. In the female flowers 

 the stamens are either less nume- 

 rous or much shorter, and sometimes even wholly absent, included, 

 with sterile anthers, or antherless. But the species, to the number 

 of thirty, included in the genus Pisonia, are subject to an indefinite 

 number of variations. The perianth is 



variable in form, according to the Pisonia acuieata. 



species and sex. In the female flowers 

 it is often cylindrical or clavate. In the 

 male it is frequently shorter ovoid, ob- 

 ovoid or campanulate. The divisions, 

 sometimes not very deep, are either 

 slightly reduplicate, or oftener indupli- 

 cate in the bud. The androceum is 

 generally the seat of deduplications, 

 which, instead of five stamens, make as 



many as six, seven, eight, or still more, from twelve to thirty, or even, 

 in CephaJotomandra 1 and Vieillardia, 2 from thirty to forty. The ovary 

 has always the same organization, but the stigmatiferous extremity 



jLn 



Fig. 16. 



Fruit with 

 indusium (^). 



Fig. 17. 



Transverse section 

 of fruit. 



1 C.fragrans Kakst. et Till., Fl. gran., 23 

 (ex Walp., Ann., v. 721). The perianth is 

 urceolate-subcampannlate in the male flowers. 

 The stamens are included in these, while in the 

 female flowers they are sterile, and slightly ex- 



serted. The greater part of the Pisonias more- 

 over, have the fruit induviate. 



2 Ad. Bb. et Ge., in Bull. Soc. Hot. de Fr., 

 viii. 375; in Ann. Sc. Nat., ser, 5, 338. The 

 calyx is suhcampanul.ite. 



