RHAMNACE^. 55 



have polygamous flowers, similar to those of the Buckthorns in the 

 obconical form of their receptacle, of the disk which clothes it and of 

 the perianth. Their free ovary, generally bilocular, is succeeded by a 

 capsular fruit the dehiscent cocci of which separate at their base from 

 the receptacle on which remain the seeds, generally of a red colour, 

 smooth and glossy. The receptacle and disk are the same also in 

 SarcomphakiSj unarmed or prickly trees or shrubs from the Antilles, 

 with thick triangular sepals and long-clawed petals. But the stamens 

 have an extrorse anther with very distinct didymous cells, which, 

 notwithstanding the marked incurvation oftheir filaments in the bud, 

 occupies (like that of the Melastomacece) the interval which separates 

 the free gynsecium from the coat of the receptacle covered by the 

 disk. The fruit is an ovoid drupe, inserted in a deep receptacular 

 cupule. The alternate leaves of these plants are often triplinerved 

 and not unlike those of the Lauracece, 



Hovenia^ trees of temperate Asia, differ from the preceding genera 

 in their floral receptacle being more open, furnished likewise, however, 

 with a thin disk which lines the entire cavity, and in their ovary not 

 being completely free but slightly 



adherent at the base. They are Eovenia duids. 



beautiful trees, with alternate un- 

 symmetrical leaves resembling 

 those of our Limes. The flowers 

 are arranged in cymes the axes of 

 which thicken and become quite 

 fleshy and succulent as the fruit 

 attains maturity (Fig. 45). Noltia^ 

 a South African shrub, with den- 



, Fig. 45. Portion of fructiferous inflorescence. 



tate leaves, has also an ovary ad- 

 hering at its base and surrounded, where it begins to be free, by a 

 disk which, covering the interior of the receptacle with a thin layer, 

 ascends as far as the insertion of the perianth and the androecium. 

 But its fruit, decidedly dry, is inserted, nearly to the middle, in a 

 deep cupule formed by the accrescent receptacle, and it separates at 

 maturity into three cocci dehiscing longitudinally within. Coluhrina 

 has a fruit similar to that of Noltia ; but in the flower the ovary is 

 still more deeply sunk in the concavity of the receptacle from which 

 it is inseparable, and is surrounded by a thick disk to which it equally 



