74 NATURAL IIISTORY OF rLANTS. 



been described under the name of Fremotdia. 1 It may be considered 

 as the type of a special section because of its habit, and the more 

 membranous and drier consistency of its calyx, and on account of its 

 stamens, which preserve almost to the end their verticillate arrange- 

 ment, and whose cells become much more fornicate and curved within; 2 

 and also because of its short subglobose capsule. 



V. TXERMANNIA SERIES. 



The flower of Hermannic? (figs. 106-115) is regular and hermaphro- 

 dite. The convex receptacle bears a gamosepalous calyx with five 

 not very deep divisions, valvate in the bud, then five alternate free 

 petals with hollow claws like gutters, and the limb contorted in 

 the bud. More internally are inserted five oppositipetalous stamens 

 with filaments free or connate at the base, flattened, petaloid, often 

 valvate reduplicate, and anthers narrower than the filaments, extrorse 

 dehiscing from the top downwards to a variable distance by two 

 longitudinal clefts. 4 The superior gynseceum is composed of a sessile 

 stipitate ovary with five cells alternating with the stamens sur- 

 mounted, by as many styles which unite by their edges to form a long 

 conical hollow stigmatiferous apex. In the interior angle of each cell are 

 inserted a certain number of anatropous, horizontal or oblique ovules. 

 The fruit is a loculicidal capsule 5 (fig. Ill), whose seeds, 6 indefinite in 

 number, enclose under their coats a fleshy albumen more or less com- 

 pletely enveloped by the fornicate embryo (fig. 114). The Hermannias 

 proper are about twenty-four in number. They are herbaceous 

 suffrutescent, or frutescent plants, glabrous or more often covered 



1 Toeb. in Smiths. Contr., vi. 5, t. 2 (PI. n. 20. — Tricantliera Ehrenb., in Linnaa, iv. 

 Fremont.).— B. H., Gen., 212, n. 53, 982, 401.— Pi., in Ann. Sc. Nat., ser. 4, iii. 292.— 

 n. 12 a.—Bot. Mag., t. 5135. — Wale., Ann., Furynema Ende., Gen., Suppl., ii. 292. 



iv. 319; vii. 418. t 4 Described as pores when they are at the apex, 



2 The wall of the anthers bears transversal and very short. In all the Hermanniea; which 

 parallel wrinkles. The tube formed by the base have been studied (Hermann /a, Waltheria, Melo- 

 of the filaments is short and rather large. chid), the pollen is ovoidal or spherical, with 



3 L., Gen., n. 828. — J., Gen., 289 ; in Mem. three (rarely four) short folds, with umbilici 

 Mux., v. 242. — Lamk., Diet., iii. 177; Suppl., (H. Mohl., in Ann. Sc. Nat., ser. 2, iii. 334). 

 iii. 41 ; III., t. 570. — Tcrp., in Did. Sc. Nat., 6 With apex muticous, or prolonged into five 

 Atl., t. 144.— DC, Prodr., i. 493. — Ekdl., points. 



Gen., n. 5340. — Payer, Organog., 44, t. 9. — 6 They often have the rudiment of an aril 



H. Bir., in Adansonia, iii. 176; ix. 338; in (see Adansonia, ix. 338). 

 Payer Fam. Nat., 289.— B. H., Gen., 223, 



