138 



NATURAL IIIHTORY 01' PLANTS. 



Tu a small peculiar sub-series, which has received the name of 

 Anthostemidca^ the flowers are monandrous, the gynseceum remain- 

 ing nearly that of Excacaria. In Ophthalmohlapton^ a Brazilian tree, 

 with the foliage of Excwcaria^ the anther is bilocular and issues by 

 a kind of perforation of the summit of an urceolate calyx, and the 

 dilated summit of the style is pierced by a triangular pore leading 

 into a stigmatiferous cavity. In I'etrcqilandra^ also a native of 



Aiithostcma seiieijalense. 



Fig. 219. Inflorescence, with general 

 involucre [\) 



Fig. 220. Inflorescence, without the large 

 inferior bracts. 



Brazil, the terminal anther is quadrilocular (unless it is considered 

 as formed by the bringing together of two bilocular anthers at the 

 summit of the common and articulated column), the style having 

 three distinct branches. Algcrnonia., a tree of the same country, 

 lias but one anther with two non-articulate cells. Its male calyx is 

 3-5-lobed and its denticulate glandular female calyx has three divi- 

 sions. Dalemhertia, inhabiting Mexico, has no male calyx ; the 

 bilocular anther is supported by a filament, at first incurved, bear- 

 ing on its convexity a bracteole superposed to the axile bract. 

 Finally, Anthostema (fig. 219, 220), wi-ongly united with Eujihorhia and 

 Dalechmnpia in one and the same tribe, has the monandrous flowers 

 of the preceding genera, accompanied by glandular bracts like those 

 of Excwcariu generally, and united in little clusters round a female 

 flower which finally becomes lateral. The flowers of both sexes 

 have a small calyx in the three known species of the genus, natives 

 of Western tropical Africa and Madagascar. 



