lOU 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



upon tlie edges iu membranous lobes, generally five in number,^ dis- 

 posed in quincuucial prietioration iu the bud. In the intervals are 

 found as many, or a smaller number' of appendages, generally 

 fleshy or glandular, very varied in form, sometimes petaloid and 



Ertphorbia Lathi/rin. 



Fig. 146. Long. sect, of flower {\). 



Fig. U4. Flower {■^). Fig. 147. Flower, the periaDth 



taken away. 



Fig. 149. Seed (I). Fig. 148 Dehiscent fruit (?). Fig. 150. Long. .sect, of seed. 



much more developed than the true sepals, sometimes much cut and 

 covered with numerous glands ; their nature has been much dis- 

 cussed. The androceum is formed of an indefinite number of 

 stamens, disposed in five bundles, and inserted on a line correspond- 

 ing to the middle of the face of each sepal. In each bundle the 

 stamens arc alternately disposed iu two unequal parallel series,'* 

 each formed of an articulate filament of variable height, fi-om a 

 certain age, and of a bilocular anther, dehiscing by tAvo longitudinal 

 clefts, lateral, or more or less cxtrorse.'' In the intervals of the 

 bundles of stamens are generally seen five tongues, or five 



' There sometimes flowers with four, more 

 rarely with seven or eight parts. 



- One, two, the anterior often wanting, fig. 

 145. 



3 Shorter as they .are more inferior in the 

 bundlr. 



' The pollen is, according to II. IMoul (iu 



Ann. Sc. IViit. ser 2, iii. 338), " oroid, three 

 folds ; in water spherical, with three bands, with 

 pajiilhe upon the hands. £. Pep/u.i, (oval um- 

 bilici placed lengthwi.se) £. si/liatirn, E. vcnii- 

 roxa, E. viiyata. In the tliree latter, the um- 

 bicili so lai-ge that there only remain a small 

 border of the bands. 



