272 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



encloses an inferior ovary and is crowned with an epigynous disk, 

 around which are inserted the calyx, the corolla, and the androecium. 

 The calyx, short and superior, has from four to ten teeth with which 

 alternate an equal number of narrow elongate valvate petals, finally 

 reflexed or revolute. The epigynous stamens are the same in 



Alavgium dicapetalum. 



Fig. 247. Fruit. 



Fig. 245. Flower. 



Fig. 248. Transverse 

 sect, of fruit. 



Fig. 246. Long, 

 sect, of flower. 



number as the petals, with which they alternate, or double, triple, or 

 quadruple (fig. 245, 246) ; they are formed each of a free filament, 

 glabrous or hairy, and a bilocular, introrse anther dehiscing by two 

 longitudinal clefts.^ The ovary, set in the cavity of the receptacle 

 and consequently inferior, is unilocular in the true Alangiums, and 

 encloses, inserted a little below the summit, a descending anatropous 

 ovule with micropyle primarily superior and exterior, later lateral, 

 afterwards slightly contorted.^ The style, rising from the centre of 

 the epigynous disk, is swollen at its stigmatiferous summit, almost 

 entire or divided into a variable number of small lobes. The fruit 

 is a drupe, crowned with the persistent calyx and the putamen, often 

 of little thickness, encloses a seed whose coats cover a fleshy albumen, 

 externally smooth or ruminated, enveloping an axile embryo, with 

 superior cylindrical radicle, and wide foliaceous cotyledons, flat or 

 more or less contortuplicate. There are some species of Alangium 



' They are sometimes nearly marginal. 



" It has a double envelope. 



