OEBANIAOEJi. 



11 



IV. BALBISIA SERIES. 



The flowers of Balhista ' (fig. 20-22), resembling outwardly those 

 of Geranium^ are hermaphrodite and regular, with a convex recep- 

 tacle, five unequal sepals, qviincuncially imbricated in the bud, and 

 five alternate contorted petals. The stamens destitute of glands at 



Balhisia veriicilhUa. 



1. Gyntoceum (^-). 



Fig. 20. Long. sect, of flower (f). 



Fig. 22. Dehiscent fruit. 



the base are ten in number, superposed, five to the sepals, and five, 

 more exterior, to the petals, each being formed of a free filament and 

 a two-celled anther, with almost marginal dehiscence. The gyna^ceum 

 is composed of a free ovary witli five alternipetalous cells, sur- 

 mounted by a style with five thick branches, charged within and 

 upon the edges with stigmatic papillae. Each ovary cell i)resents, 

 in its internal angle, a placenta supporting an indefinite number of 

 ovules in two vertical series. The fi'uit, accompanied at its base by 

 the persistent calyx, is a caj^sule separating above into five valves 

 loculicidal at the summit, and allowing the seeds to escape Avhich 

 contain under their coats a fleshy albumen and an axilc embryo 

 whose radicle is folded between or upon the folded cotyledons. 

 Balhisia is composed of suffrutescent plants of Peru or Chili, more 



' Cav. in Ann. Scienc. Xat. vii. 02, t. 4G. — • 

 Dox, in lidinb. New P/iil. Joiirn. xi. 276. — Kl. 

 in Lhnueti, x. 431.— B. H. Oeii. 276, n. 13.— H. 

 B.N. in I'ln/ei Fam. Nat. 397. — Lnlocarpum Desf. 

 in ilCm. Mus. iv. 250. — DC. I'rodr. i. 702. — J. 



in Mint. Mus. v. 231. — LciJocarponi Exul. Got. 

 n. 6050. — Cislocnrptim K. in Men. Sic. /fist. 

 Kal. par. iii. 380 (ox Endl.). — Cruckhanlisiu 

 Hook. Bot. Misc. ii. 211, t. 00. 



