426 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



anthers, dehiscing by two longitudinal clefts, or partly sterile ; all 

 are provided with a filament tapering- at the apex and dilated at the 



Feganum Harmala. 



Fig. 506. 

 Long. sect, of liower (|). 



Fig. 507. 

 Diagram. 



Fig. 508. 

 Dehiscent fruit (\). 



Peganum Harmala. 



base. Within their insertion, a slight glandular disk is seen sur- 

 rounding the short foot of the two- or three-celled ovary, surmounted 



by an erect, twisted style, with two or 

 three prominent stigmatiferous awns. In 

 the internal angle of each cell a placenta 

 is seen supporting an indefinite number 

 of oblique anatropous ovules. 1 The fruit, 

 accompanied by the persistent calyx, is a 

 loculicidal capsule, with two or three 

 valves, and contains angular seeds whose 

 coats cover a fleshy albumen, surrounding 

 in its turn a curved embryo. In P. critk- 

 r> '//folium,' generically separated under the name of Malacocarpua* 

 the two-celled fruit is baccate. The other characters are, however, 

 those of three other species of the gienus which are ramified, glabrous, 

 pubescent herbs, inodorous and not punctuate, with alternate leaves, 

 entire or irregularly pinnatifid, with two lateral, slender, unequal 

 stipules, 4 and solitary, leaf-opposed, 5 pedunculate flowers. They are 



Fig. 509. 

 Seed (f ). 



Fig. 510. 

 Long. sect, of seed. 



1 They Lave a double coat. 



2 Retz, Obs., ii. 34 (nee Georg.). — P. 

 Harmala, |3 crithmifolium DC. — Bieb., Fl. 

 Taur-cauc., i. B64. 



3 Fiboh. & Met., I ml. Sem. Sort, Peirvp., 

 i.x. 78.— Walp., Rep., v. 394. 



4 These are perhaps the inferior lobes of the 

 leaf, but little developed. 



5 The flowers have doubtless here, as in 

 other species of Zggophylhim, been drawn upon 

 the axis above their axile leaf. 



