10 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



Qoiipia glabra. 



All are of Australian origin except two, one from New Zealand, the 

 other from the Philippine Isles. 



III. GOUPIA SEEIES. 



In Goupia^ (fig. 12), the flowers are regular and hermaphrodite, 

 with a small receptacle which supports a gamosepalous calyx with 

 five divisions imbricated in prefloration, and five alternate petals, 

 much longer, valvate-induplicate in the bud, and reflexed in such a 

 manner that their attenuated summits hang in the interior of the 



bud like the key of a vault. Within the 

 corolla, the receptacle bears an annular 

 disk in the form of a short collarette with 

 five salielit festoons in front of the petals. 

 In the crenatures of the festoons, and 

 consequently in the intervals between the 

 petals, are inserted five stamens, the short 

 filaments of which are attached by their 

 base exactly opposite the internal face 

 of the disk, whence they are free and 

 support each a bilocular introrse anther. 

 The connective terminates in a point 

 covered with straight apical hairs, and 

 its short cells each open by a longitudinal 

 cleft. The gynsecium is composed of a 

 free ovary, but surrounded by the disk, with five oppositipetalous 

 cells, each surmounted by a small eccentric stylary branch. In 

 the internal angle of each cell is a placenta bearing two vertical 

 series of numerous anatropous nearly horizontal or ascending 

 ovules. The fruit is a small berry, nearly globular, the cells of which, 

 variable in number, enclose each some ascending seeds. The latter 

 contain under their integuments a fleshy albumen which envelopes 

 an axilate curved embryo, with cylindrical radicle and elongated 

 cotyledons. Only one Goupia ^ is known ; it is a small tree from 



Fif?. 12. Long. sect, of Flower {\] 



^ AuBL. Guian. i. 295, t. 116.— J. Gen. 378. 

 — Lamk. Diet. iii. 15; III. t. 217.— DC. Prodr. 

 ii. 29. — Benth. Hook. Kew Journ.iy. H. — Endl. 

 Got. n. 5696. — Miers, in A)>n. Nat. Hist. ser. 

 3, ix. 289, 293 ; Contrib. to Bot. ii. t. 74.— B. H. 

 Gen. 369, n. 35.— H. Bn. Patjer Fam. Nat. 325. 

 — Reiss. Mart. Fl. Bras. Celastr. 34. — Gupia 



J. S. H. Exp. Fam. ii. 267. — Glossopotalum 

 ScHREB. Gen. n. 526. 



- G. glabra Aubl. — Walp. Rep. i. 539 ; A ww. 

 iv. 427; yii. 583. — ? G. tomentosa Aubl.— 

 Ghssopetalum glabrum Schrbb. loc. cit. — AV, 

 Spccn, 588, 



