3(i4 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



^yit]l two collateral ovules in each cell. The branches are in part 

 transformed into spines, and the leaves are simple, linear, alternate, 

 or fasciculate. Dij^hpeltis has also a very different aspect. It consists 

 of Australian herbs, suffruteseent at the- base, whose flowers are also 

 veiy nearly those of Kcelrcutcria ; but tlie glandular ovary is didy- 

 mous or trilobate, and the fruit is a coriaceous, depressed capsule, 

 bi- or tri-lobate, septicidal, divided at maturity into berries dehis- 

 cent by their internal angle. The Eriihrophijsas are also closely 

 allied to the preceding genera. They also have irregular flowers. 



Mrithrophysa nnditlata. 



Fig. 391. Hennaphrodite flower {fj. 



Fie;. 392. Lonnitudinal section of flower. 



with four petals and a more or less excentric ovary with bi-ovulate 

 cells. The petals are provided with a long claw lined in the upper 

 part by a petaloid apiiendage, more or less lobate and cut in fim- 

 briate tufts (fig. 391, 392). The receptacle has the shajje of a cup 

 on whose edges the very pronounced waved disk is projected from one 

 side, so tliat the stipitate gynteceum is more or less excentric. The 

 fruit is vesiculate, almost like that of Ktvlreuteria^ and the cells of 

 the ovary are also biovulate. The two species of Erithrophysa known 

 are, one from the Cape, the other from Madagascar, and they have 

 large flowers aj^pearing before the iinparipiuuate leaves. Vossi(/nia 

 (fig. 393-398), consisting of shrubs from Zanzibar, Madagascar, and 

 the Mascarinc islands, has nearly all the characters of Erithrophysa ; 



