•Jl'i 



NATURAL II [STORY OF PLANTS. 



P< lliceria Bhizophora. 



other, containing a single ovule, partly campy lotropal, attached to 

 the base of a large conical funicle hanging from the summit of the cell, 



and turning its micropyle up- 

 wards and inwards. The fruit 

 is said to be dry, ovoid, turbi- 

 nate, acuminate, traversed by 

 ten longitudinal grooves, with 

 coriaceous, fungous, indehis- 

 cent pericarp. It contains a 

 seed, the coats 1 covering a 

 fleshy embryo, with superior 

 radicle, straight and short, 

 and large, thick, fleshy 2 coty- 

 ledons. The only known spe- 

 cies of this genus, P. Rhizo- 

 phora? is a tree growing in 

 the marshes near the sea, at 

 the extreme north-west of 

 South America, and which 

 has the appearance of the 

 Mangrove. All its organs 

 are glabrous ; its leaves alternate, nearly sessile, involuted in verna- 

 tion, are unsymmetrical at the base, glabrous, and coriaceous. The 

 edges, when young, are furnished with very small, prominent, 

 triangular, 4 caducous teeth. The flowers 5 are solitary and terminal, 6 

 and each of them enveloped in the bud by two large membranous 

 involute bracts. 



Fig. 268. 

 Longitudinal section of flower. 



VI. MARCGRAVIA SERIES. 



The flowers of Marcgravidf (figs. 269-277) are hermaphrodite and 

 regular. The receptacle, in the form of a depressed cone, bears first a 



1 "Testa fere evanida." (IB. H.) 



2 " Plumula longe evoluta." 



3 Pl. & Te., Ioc. cit. These authors dis- 

 tinguish two forms which should perhaps be 

 two species, distinguished from each other by the 

 colour of the flower and the number of ovary 

 cells. 



* Implanted on the limb by the summit of the 

 small triangle which they represent. 

 5 White or pink. 



6 They are described as placed in the axil of 

 the upper leaves. It seems to us that the short 

 thick peduncle supporting the flower is the 

 extremity of the branch, and that the pointed 

 shoot upon the side is not terminal, but placed 

 in the axil of the leaf preceding the flower. 



" Plum., Gen., 7, t. 29.— L., Gen., n. 610.— 

 Adans., Fam. des PI., ii. 408. — P. Be., Jam., 

 244, t. 26.— Buem., Amer., 166, t. 173.— J., 

 Gen., 244; in Ann. Mux., xiv. 402. — Desb., in 



