350 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



Enphuria Longana. 



berries each coutaining a seed enveloped by a tliick aril, fleshy or pulpy, 

 and whose exalbumiuoiis embryo has thick plano-convex cotyledons. 

 It consists of trees with imparipinuate leaves, natives of tropical 



Asia and Oceania. Ncphelimn (fig. 356- 

 360), growing in the same regions, has the 

 same general organisation, but the leaves 

 are usually paripinnate, and the calyx, 

 instead of being formed of free sepals, 

 becomes gamosepalous, iu the form of a 

 shallow cup dentate on the edges. The 

 petals are variable in num- 

 ber, destitu.te of appen- 

 dages, or completely want- 

 ing, and the stamens are 

 generally exserted in the 

 male flowers. The fruit 

 in the Nephelkmi proper 

 or ScytaUa (flg. 356, 357) is like that oi Euphovki^ and does not 

 open, or dehisces tardily and in an irregular manner, to liberate 

 a seed completely surrounded by a large fleshy sacciform aril 

 (flg. 357, 358), whose cotyledons are plano-convex, or more or less 



Fig. 3o4. Inflorescence. Fig. 3.5.5. Male flower (^). 



Fis. 366. Fruit. 



Fig. 358. Seed with aril. Fig. 357. Longitudinal section 



of friiit. 



folded back upon themselves. In a Nephelmm of Mauritius, from 

 which the genus Stadmania has been made, the fruit opens a little 

 more regularly, usually following its length and in two nearly equal 

 valves. The seed is totally enveloped by an aril, and the embryonic 

 radicle is folded back on the cotyledons. In the Cuhilias, species 

 from the Indian Archipelago, which there seems no reason for 



