434 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



these is found a descending seed, the coats 1 covering a fleshy embryo 

 with short superior radicle and plano-convex cotyledons. In the 

 male flowers, the carpels remain rudimentary and sterile, and the 

 stamens are, as in the hermaphrodite flowers, provided with long 

 pendant filaments. In the female flowers, on the contrary, the sta- 

 mens are sterile, short, and erect. 



C. myrtifolia is a glabrous shrub, with square angular branches, 

 bearing opposite, simple, entire leaves, 3-5-nerved at the base, pro- 

 vided with a short petiole, accompanied by two very small caducous, 

 lateral stipules. The flowers are arranged in racemes at the summit 

 of the leafy branches. Each is supported by a pedicel, accompanied 

 by two lateral caducous bractlets. Among the species of the genus, 

 three or four in number,- inhabiting the Mediterranean region, Cen- 

 tral Eastern Asia, New Zealand, and South Western America, we 

 find sarmentose stems, flowers in verticils of threes, and female 

 flowers and fruits with from six to ten carpels. 



XIV. SUKIANA SERIES. 



Suriand? (figs. 526-529) has been lately ascribed to the Quassias. 

 The flowers are hermaphrodite and regular, the receptacle having an 

 almost flat upper surface. The calyx is formed of five sepals, dis- 

 posed in quincuncial prsefloration, and the corolla of five alternate 

 petals, imbricated or contorted. The stamens are ten in number, 

 and superposed, five to the sepals, and five, shorter, to the petals ; 

 they are free, formed of a subulate filament, and a short, two-celled, 

 introrse anther, dehiscing by two longitudinal clefts, sometimes 

 aborted in the oppositipetalous stamens. The gynceceum is consti- 

 tuted of five oppositipetalous independent carpels, whose ovary, 

 supported by a short foot, is surmounted by a style inserted towards 



1 These are: a soft thin coat, representing Cliil., i. 491. — Gken. & Gode., Fl. de Fr.,\. 



the episperm ; then more internally a plate, 330. — Walp., Pep., i. 528; Ann., vii. 649. 



almost always inconsiderable but of variable 3 Pi,mr., Gen., 37; Icon. (ed. Bukm.), t. 



thickness, sometimes enduring, which has been 219. — L., Gen., n. 581. — Adans., Fam. des 



regarded (perhaps without sufficient demonstra- PI., ii. 249. — J., Gen., 339. — Lame., III., t. 



tion of the fact) as a rudimentary albumen. 3S9. — Poir., Did., vii. 522; Snppl., v. 265. — 



- Keicltb., Ic. Fl. Germ., v. t. 160. — DC, Frodr., ii. 91— Kndl., Gen., n. 5953. — 



H. 15. K., Nov. Gen.et Spec, vii. 168, t. 636. — B. H., Gen., 313, n. 20.— J. G. Ag., Theor. 



Wall., PI. As. Far., t. 289.— A. Gray, in Si/st., 1G9, t. 4. — H. Bn., in Adansonia, x. 



. Amer. Acad. (1862), 383, not.— Hook. 317. 

 T., Man. N.-Zeal. Fl., 46, 727.— C. Gat, Fl. 



