CASTANEAGE^. 



243 



development.* The gynascium is formed of a single carpel, the 

 ventral suture of which is opposite the axis of the catkin, and its 

 unilocular ovary is surmounted by a long style, papillous and stig- 



Leitneriajloridanea. 



Fig. 216. Long. sect, of fruit (f). 



Fig. 214. Male flower (f). 



Fig. 215. Long. sect, of female 

 inflorescence {\). 



matic on its entire internal surface, whilst its summit turns out- 

 wards.^ In the internal angle of the ovary, a parietal placenta 

 supports a single descending ovule, incompletely anatropous,^ 

 with micropyle directed upwards and outwards. The fruit 

 is an oblong drupe, the exocarp of which is of little thickness, 

 coriaceous, and its hard putamen encloses a descending seed, with 

 thin albumen, covering a straight embryo with short superior radicle 

 and greenish fleshy plano-convex cotyledons. L, floridana Chapm., 

 the only known species of this genus, inhabits the marshes of the 



^ Here and there are female flowers with one 

 or more fertile stamens within this false calyx. 

 - It is traversed by a vertical furrow, the 



thick margins of which are reflexed and papil- 

 lous. 

 ^ " Amphitropous." (Chapm.) 



16—2 



