TEREBINTHA GEM. 



273 



parts of thoir dioecious and apetalous iiowers, only possessing 

 a calyx of from two to five small imbi-icato leaves. In tlie male 

 flowers around a rudimentary gynaeceum (which may even dis- 

 appear), only five stamens with introrse anthers are seen, and in the 

 female, a gyna?ceum whose unilocular ovary is surmounted by a 

 style with thi-ee branches, and containing an ovule suspended at the 



Fistacia vera. 



Fig. 316. Female 

 flower (f). 



Fig. 314. Portion of male 

 inflorescence. 



Fig. 31.5. Male 

 flower (^). 



Fig. 317. Longitudinal 



section of female 



flower. 



summit of an upright and flattened funicle. The fruit (pistachio 

 nut) is an unsymmetrical drupe whose flesh is of little thickness, 

 the stone thin, and it may even become finally completely dry ; it only 

 contains one large seed with a fieshy embryo. The Pistachias, 

 trees or shrubs with a resinous odour, compound leaves, pinnate or 

 trifoliolate, inliabit the Mediterranean region, temperate Asia and the 

 western islands on the coasts of Africa and central America. 



The double perianth reappears in the subseries of Mangos {Mangi- 

 fcra\ whose polygamo-dioecious flowers (Fig. 318-320) have four or 

 five sepals, and as many imbricate petals, foiu- or five stamens, 

 only one or two being fertile, inserted round a thick disc encircling 

 the base of an uni-carpellary gynseceum. Its ovary contains a single 

 O'STile, borne by an ascendent funicle and inserted more or less 

 close to the base of the cell ; it is surmounted by a simple style. 

 The Mangos are trees from southern Asia, introduced into all tropical 

 countries. The fruit is a drupe with a large stone, fibrous outside, 

 indehiscent or bivalvate. The leaves are simple and the flowers 

 collected in ramified clusters of (;ymes. The organs of vegetation 



VOL. V. 



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