422 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



indehiscent (?). Seeds " compressed-globose exarillate." — Glabrous 

 shrubs ; leaves alternate fastigiate at the top of the branches impari- 

 pinnate ; petiole winged ; flowers ^ in more or less corymbose 

 racemes ^. {South Africa, Madacascar.*) 



63. Cossignia Commers.^ — Flowers polygamous irregular; sepals 

 5, subequal, imbricate. Petals 4, esquamate, imbricate, sometimes 

 shorter than the calyx. Disk very ii-regular, excentric posticous. 

 Stamens 5-8, anterior to disk hypogynous. Germen sessile, anterior 

 to disk, 3-locular ; style simple ; apex stigmatose obtuse or sub- 

 capitate ; ovules in cells 2, 3, finally oblique or sub-transverse. 

 Capsule globose, 3-lobed, sometimes inflated submembranous (Har- 

 puUiopsis ^), loculicidal ; valves oftener finally solute from axis. 

 Seeds in cells 1-3, exarillate ; testa crustaceous ; cotyledons of 

 exalbuminous embryo more or less convolute. — Shrubs sometimes 

 cinereo-tomentose ; leaves alternate imparipinnate ; leaflets opposite 

 entire; flowers in terminal often racemose-corymbiform cymiferous 

 racemes.^ {Mascarene Islands, Malacassia.^) 



64 ? Loxodiscus Hook, p.^ — Flowers polygamous irregular ; 

 sepals 5, unequal, very imbricate, at margin glandulose-fimbriate. 

 Petals 5, unequal; the fifth often less than the others, or 4, shortly 

 unguiculate, jnlose, imbricate or contorted. Disk excentric posticous 

 compressed-subcupular, higher at the back and unequally crenate. 

 Stamens 7, 8, subcentrie, anterior to disk ; filaments free declinate ; 

 anthers oblong, introrsely 2-riraose, Germen as regards the stamens 

 central (in male flower rudimentary) stipitate, 3-gonal ; cells 8 (2 of 

 which are posterior) ; style subulate, at apex stigmatose simple. 

 Ovules in cells 2, inserted at the middle of the internal angle ; one 

 ascendent ; micropyle extrorsely inferior ; the other descendent ; 

 micropyle introrsely superior. Fruit capsular membranous, 3-gonal, 

 loculicidally 3-valvate ; seeds (immature) arillate at base. — A glabrous 

 shrub ; leaves alternate, exstipulate imparipinnate ; petiole marginate 



' "Testa purple." 



" Red or white, appearing early. 



^ A genus by the character of its perianth 

 and andi'oceum recalling some Ciesalpiiiicas. 



* Spec. 2. of which one has a Ttry excentric 

 gyna3ceum, viz. E. mululata E. Mey. loc. cU. — 

 Harv. & SOND. Fl. Cap. i. 238.— Walp. Rep. i. 

 411 [Erylhrophila) ; Ann. vii. 623. Spec. alt. 

 madagascar. H. Bn. Aiinnsonia, xi. 239. 



5 Ex. J. Gen. 248.— Lamk. Diet. ii. 132; 

 III. t. 256.— DC. Piodr. i. 614.— Gambess 



Mem. Mils, xviii. 33.— Endl. Gen. n. 5623.— B. 

 H. Oen. 397, n. 17.— Baker, Tl. Maurit. 68. 



^ H. Bx. Adansonia, xi. 248. 



' A genus very near to Erythrophysa, hav- 

 ing apparently the irregular form of Sarpiiliia ; 

 fruit in a species from Madagascar inflato- 

 vesiculose. 



s Spec. 2, 3. 



5 Book. Kew Jotini. ix. 200 t. 6.— B. H, Gen 

 398, n. 20. 



