OCHNACE^. 



369 



l 5< 



Luxemburgia polyandra. 



\ 



bricated 1 or contorted in the bud. The stamens are indefinite in 

 number, sometimes pretty considerable, often also only from ten to 

 eight. Their lilaments are short, united into a sort of thick tube, 

 widely cleft on the anterior side of the flower, so that the androceum 

 only surrounds the gynseceum behind. The anthers are elona-ate- 

 linear, basifixed, two-ceiled, divided into four 

 secondary cells separated by longitudinal 

 grooves; they open almost at the summit by 

 two pores or short clefts. The gynseceum is 

 composed of a superior ovary slightly ex- 

 centric, tapering at the summit into a subu- 

 late style with simple stigmatiferous apex. In 

 the ovary are seen two, three, or five parietal 

 placentas, more or less prominent in the in- 

 terior of the cavity, and bearing on their 

 reflexed edges 2 a number of anatropous, im- 

 bricated, ascending ovules. The fruit is a 

 septicidal capsule, divided at maturity into 

 three or five valves, often leaving upon the receptacle, from which 

 they detach themselves, woody bands corresponding to their edges. 

 The seeds are small, numerous, attached within towards the edge of 

 the valves. Their outer coat is more or less dilated in the form of 

 a wing ; and their inconsiderable, fleshy albumen surrounds a cylin- 

 drical embryo. 



Luxemburgia, of which half a dozen species 3 are known, consists of 

 trees and elegant shrubs, ramose and glabrous, natives of Brazil. 

 Their cylindrical branches are loaded with alternate simple, petio- 

 late, coriaceous, smooth serrulate leaves, often ciliate upon the edges 

 and summit, penninerved, with parallel secondary nerves, fine, close, 

 generally subperpendicular to the midrib, with two lateral ciliate 

 stipules. The flowers 4 are disposed in simple terminal racemes, each 

 supported by an articulate pedicel at the base, accompanied by two 

 lateral bractlets. 



Beside this genus are placed several others, which all belong to the 



Fig. 389. 

 Dehiscent fruit. 



Fig. 390. 

 Seed (f). 



1 There is often one large one enveloping all 

 the others, then three often smaller than the 

 preceding, covered on one edge, and covering by 

 the other; finally, a fifth, quite interior, and 

 enveloped on botli edges. 



VOL. IV. 



• 2 Their transverse section often has the form 

 of an arrow head. 



a A. S. H., PI. Rem. Bres., 331, t, 29, 30; 

 Fl, Bran. Mer., ii. 113.— Walp., Hep., i. 226; 

 Ami., i. 175. 



4 Yellow, elegant, sometimes odoi'ifcrous. 



I? B 



