276 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



II. FLACOURTIA SERIES. 



Macourtia) (figs. 297-300) has unisexual flowers, dioecious or more 

 rarely polygamous. The calyx is formed of from three to five 

 sepals,' 2 imbricated or scarcely touching at their edges, sometimes 

 very small in the female flowers. Within it the edge of the recep- 

 tacle is swollen into a circular disk, continuous or lobed, or formed 



Flacourtia Cataphracta. 



Fig. 297. 

 Flower (±). 



Fig. 298. 



Longitudinal section of flower. 



Fig. 299. 

 Fruit (f ). 



Fig. 300. 

 Longitudinal section of fruit. 



of independent glands, sometimes ciliate, generally more developed 

 in the female flowers, where it may be surrounded by small stamens, 

 often sterile. In the male flowers the stamens are very numerous, 

 covering all the receptacle, surrounded by the cushion of the disk, 

 each formed of a free filament and a short anther, extrorse, two-celled, 

 versatile, dehiscing by two longitudinal clefts. 3 The gyna)ceum, of 



1 Commees. ex Lheb., Stirp., 95, t. 30, 30 b 

 (] 784). — J., Gen., 291 ( Flacurtia).— Pom., 

 Bid., vi. 65 j Suppl., iv. 653; 111., t. 826. — 

 DC, Prodr., i. 256. — SrACn, Suit, a Buffon, 

 vi. 133. — Tuep., in Diet. Sc. Nat., Atl., t. 150. 

 — Endl., Gen., n. 5079. — Clos, in Ann. 8c. 

 Nat., sor. 4, viii. 212. — Payee, Fain. Nat., 112. 

 — Benth., in Jouni. Linn. Soc, v. Suppl., 86. 



— B. H., Gen., 128, n. 17. — Stigmarota Lous., 

 Fl. Cochinch., 633. 



2 Often squatniform, ciliate. 



3 The connective is often 2-fid at its lower 

 extremity (which becomes the upper after the 

 reciprocating movement of the anther) and each 

 of its branches, sometimes coloured, is applied 

 against the back of one of the cells. 



