20 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



of whicli two are lateral, one posterior and one anterior, united only in 

 quite their lower part, and imbricated in prefloration.^ The androecium 

 is composed of eight stamens, inserted a little below the base of 

 the perianth, arranged in two verticils, four, a little longer, are 

 superposed to the folioles of the perianth. All have a free 



Geissoloma marginatum. 



Fig. 37. Diagram of flower. 



Fig. 38. Long. sect, of flower {\). 



subulate filament and an oval introrse bilocular anther dehiscing by- 

 two longitudinal clefts. The gynsecium, free, superior, is formed of 

 an ovary with four cells, alternate with the sepals, each surmounted 

 by a subulate stylary branch, traversed within by a longitudinal 

 furrow and terminated by a stigmatiferous extremity not enlarged. 

 The four branches of the style intertwine in early age. In the 

 internal angle of each cell is observed a placenta bearing two collateral 

 descending ovules with micropyle directed upwards and inwards, 

 and the raphe in the neighbourhood of the umbilicum exhibits an 

 incipient arillary thickening. The fruit is a four-celled capsule, 

 accompanied by a persistent calyx and surmounted by the remains 

 of the style. The cells open at the back by a longitudinal cleft. 

 The seed contained in them is elongate, a little flattened, with a 

 smooth and glossy testa of a deep colour.^ The umbilical region 

 is thickened to a small white aril, which descends as it stretches 

 towards the head of the raphe, and is there lodged in a furrow 

 of little depth and bordered by two vertical lips. The fleshy 

 albumen envelopes an axillary embryo of nearly the same length, 



31 ; Adansonia, xi. 281. — A. DC. Prodr. xiv. A. De Candolle has seen tlie lateral sepals 



492. interior. 



The two lateral envelop the two others, ^ Siirilar to that of the ^oa*(?«. 

 ■which we primarily contorted or imbricate, 



