94 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



I '.i mt Inlaid. 



Pavonia hastahr. 



X. URENA SERIES. 



Urena* (fig. 150) has flowers constructed nearly like those of the 

 Mallows ; they have the same corolla, androceum, seed and embryo. 

 Their calyx is gamosepalous and valvate. The tube of the androceum 



is truncate or quinquedentate 2 at its apex. The 

 gynseceum is composed of five carpels super- 

 posed to the petals. 3 The ovaries free among 

 themselves are only attached to 

 the columella by their inner 

 edgre. Each of them encloses 

 an ovule inserted towards the 

 base of its inner angle, ascend- 

 ing, with exterior 4 micropyle. 

 But these five carpels are sur- 

 mounted by a style with ten 

 branches, of which five are 

 superposed to the ovaries, and five alternate. 5 At maturity the 

 monospermous, glochidiate, indehiscent carpels separate from the 

 columella. Four or five Urenas 6 are known growing in tropical Asia 

 and Africa. They are herbs or shrubs with alternate stipulate leaves 

 generally angular or lobed. The flowers are sessile or pedunculate, 

 axillary or arranged in terminal spikes. They are enveloped by a 

 quinquefid involucre, with lobes alternating with those of the calyx. 

 This series may be divided into three subseries : Euurenece (Urena), 

 where the ovary cells are oppositipetalous ; Pavoniece {Pavonia [fig. 

 151], Malachra, Gcelliea), where they are generally alternate, and 



Fig. 150. 

 Diagram. 



Fig. 151. 

 Fruit. 



1 L., Gen., n. 844. — Adans., Fam. des PI., 

 ii. 400. — J., Gen., 272. — G^rtn., Fruct., i. 

 252, t. 135.— Poir., Did., viii. 252; Suppl., 

 v. 404. — Lamk., III., t. 583. — DC, Prodr., i. 

 441. — Endl., Gen., n. 5274. — Pater, Organog., 

 39, t. 7.— B. H., Gen., 205, n. 25.— H. Bn., in 

 Pager Fam. Nat., 282. 



5 The teeth are oppositipetalous. 



3 A. Dickson, in Adansonia, iv. °08, t. 6, 

 fig. 7. 



4 It has a double coat. 



5 Which is, as demonstrated by Payer, that 

 of the ten pre-existing carpels, five only having 

 developed their ovary, the five others remain 



reduced to a style. It was formerly believed 

 that each ovary corresponded to a pair of 

 styles. 



6 Cat., Diss., vi. t. 183-1S5.— Coix., Sort. 

 * Pipvl., t. 26. — Schhank, Hart. Monac.,\. 79. — 

 H. B. K., Nov. Gen. et Spec, v. 277.— A. S. II., 

 PI. Us. Bras., t. 56 ; Fl. Bras. Her., i. 219.— 

 Wall., PI. As. Ear., t. 26. — Griseb., FL Brit. 

 W.-Ind., 81.— Tr. et Pl., in Ann. So. Nat., 

 ser. 4, xvii. 158.— Seem., Fl. Fit., 16.— Mast., 

 in Oliv. Fl. Trop. Afr„ i. 189.— Bot. Mag., 

 t. 3049.— Walp., Rep., i. 297; v. 89; Ann., 

 ii. 140; iv. 302; vii. 399. 



