BIXAGEJE. 



281 



which at a variable height a prolongation of the disk is found, some- 

 times very marked. Round this is inserted an indefinite number 

 of stamens, and more externally five sepals much imbricated, the 



Ryania speciosa. 



Fig. 310. 



Flower. 



Fig. 312. 

 Longitudinal section of flower. 



three interior even convoluted in the bud. The unilocular ovary has 

 three, four, or five parietal pluriovulate placentas, and the style is 

 divided above, to a variable distance, in as many branches, stigma- 

 tiferous at the apex. The woody or suberous fruit 

 contains seeds provided with a fleshy aril. Ryania spetiosa. 



It is by these characters that the small subseries ^^^ 

 of Ryaniea, constituted by a single American genus, ^^W^, 

 is distinguished from that of Eusamydece, formed of 

 the five preceding genera. 



Scolopia, generally ranged among the Flacourtiea 

 proper, belongs, according to us, to a third subseries, 

 very nearly related to that in which Casearia is found, 

 for it has the same fundamental or- 

 ganization. The receptacle has the 

 form of a cup or patera, the edges 

 and upper surface bearing the pe- 

 rianth and androceum ; these are 

 therefore really perigynous. The 

 sepals, from three to six or seven in 

 number, have often in their intervals 

 a like number of petals of nearly 



the same size and colour. The anthers are often surmounted by 

 a linear prolongation of the connective. Among the Scolopiea 





Fig. 311. 

 Diagram. 



Fig. 313. 

 Gynseceum (?-). 



