100 NATURAL ITISTORY OF PLANTS. 



GENERA. 



I. BROWNLOWIE^J. 



1 . Brownlowia Eoxb. — Flowers regular hermaphrodite ; calyx sub- 

 campanulate, regularly or irregularly 3-5 -dentate or 3-5-fid, valvate. 

 Petals 5, narrow at base, unequal at apex ; prsefloration contorted or 

 imbricated. Stamens go, produced with the summit of the receptacle 

 beyond the perianth in a small cylindrical column inserted below the 

 germen, 5 of which are antherless, oppositipetalous elongated-peta- 

 loid ; others disposed in 5 phalanges, alternate ; filaments thin, free or 

 connate at base ; anthers 2-locular extrorse ; cells subglobose, rimose, 

 finally confluent at apex. Carpels 3-5, alternipetalous, free; ger- 

 mens ] -locular ; ovules 2, ascending ; micropyle extrorse inferior ; 

 style subulate ; apex stigmatiferous not thickened. Carpels in fruit 

 1-5 (usually solitary, others abortive), free subglobose thick, 2- 

 valved. Seed solitary, largely umbilicate ; embryo exalbuminous ; 

 cot} T ledons thick fleshy plano-convex, decurrent below round 

 radicle. — Trees ; hairs stellate or lepidote ; leaves alternate entire 

 petiolate ; stipules small, little conspicuous or caducous ; limb 

 entire penniverved, base 3-5-nerved ; flowers in ramified cymiferous 

 racemes, terminal or in axils of upper leaves (Trop. Asia). See 

 p. 167. 



2. Christiana DC. 1 — Flowers nearly of Brownlowia ; stamens all 

 fertile. Carpels 5 (or fewer) free at maturity, 2-valved. Seeds so- 

 litary pisiform ; testa crustaceous ; cotyledons of coloured embryo 

 foliaceous ; albumen fleshy. — A tree ; leaves and inflorescence nearly 

 of Brownlowia 2 {Trop. West Jfrica 1 ). 



1 Prodr., i. 516. — Endl., Gen., n. L>375. — 5-merous, 3-lobed. It is doubtful whether the 



B. H., Gen., 232, n. 5. — Bocq., in Adansonia, 4-lobes, as frequently in Brownlowia, are more 



vii. 61. or less united for some distance in pairs. 



The genus is discussed by R. Br., Congo, 3 Spec. 1. C. africana DC, loc. cit. — Mast., 



428; Misc. Works (ed. Benn.), i. 108; the in Olio. Fl. Trop. Afr., i. 24:1.— C. cord if alia 



calyx is said to be little known, with gynsuceum Hook. P., Niger, 238. — Walp., Ann., ii. 171. 





