80 



NATUliM. HIST011Y OF PLANTS. 



Buttliu ria salicifolia. 



Fig. 122. 

 Flower (±). 



which inhabit almost all the tropical regions of the globe. They are 

 frutescent, sutlrutescent or sometimes climbing plants often bearing 

 prickles. The leaves are alternate, accompanied by lateral stipules; 

 and the flowers in cymes sometimes umbelliferous, terminal or 

 lateral and subaxillary, 1 sessile or pedunculate. 



Beside the Byttneriads are placed three genera which are very 

 nearly related to them, having also five fertile anthers 

 alternate with five staminodes. These are Ayenia t 

 which has the back of the petals naked or glanduli- 

 fcrous, anthers generally three-celled and fruit muri- 

 cate ; Midiugia (fig. 123) and Commersonia, whose 

 petals have a large and concave base and a ligulate 

 and sometimes short summit. The former have simple 

 staminodes, and a smooth or echinate capsule ; the 

 latter have staminodes, generally tripartite, and a 

 capsular fruit covered with soft and flexible hairs. All the 

 preceding genera may be united into the subtribe of Eubuettneriae 

 having very close affinities with the LaslojjetalecB. In the second 



subseries of Theobromea are found genera in 

 which there are in the interval of the staminodes, 

 not one, but two or several fertile stamens. 



The Cocoa trees (Fr., Cacaoyers"), (figs. 124-129), 

 have regular hermaphrodite flowers. On their 

 small convex receptacle are inserted five valvate 

 sepals, and five alternate petals, whose limb is 

 contorted in prefloration. Each of them pre- 

 sents a basilar portion, dilated into the shape 

 of a spoon, which covers the fertile stamens, a contracted por- 

 tion surmounting the first, and quite at the top a limb elon- 

 gated in the form of a little band, flattened, obtuse at the summit 



Pulinyia pannosa. 



Fig. 123. 



Dehiscent fruit (^). 



Roxb., PI. Coromand., i. t. 29. — Wight, Icon., < 

 t., 488.— liK.vrii., FZ. Ilonglc., 38.— Te. et Pi,., 

 in Ann. 8c. Nat., ser. 4, xvii.331. — Geiseb., Fl. 

 Brit. W.-Ind., 92.— II. Bn., in Adansonia, x. 

 177.— W au\, Rep., i. 338; ii. 796; v. Ill; 

 Ann., i. 107; ii. 1(56; iv. 322; vii. 132. 



1 Often continued along the branches where 

 they form prominent ribs in their adherent por- 

 tion ; they are detached on a level with a leaf or 

 nearly so, but laterally. (See Adansonia, iii. 169.) 



2 TTieobromaJj., Gen., n. 100. — J., Gen., 276. 

 — DC, Prodr., i. 484. — Endl., Gen., n. 5333. 

 — H. Bn., in Adansonia, ii. 170; ix. 338, t. 5, 

 figs. 1-6; in Pager Fam. Nat., 291; in Diet. 

 JBncycl. Sc. Med., xi. 364.— B. H., Gen., 225, 

 n. 28.— Cacao T., Inst., 660, t. 444.— Adaxs., 

 Fam. des PL, ii. 344. — Lamk., Diet., i. 533; 

 Suppl., ii. 7 ; III., t. 635. — G.^etn., Frucl., ii. 

 190, t. 122. 



