286 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



descending ; micropyle extrorsely superior. Hermaphrodite flower 

 in other respects similar to female and augmented by short straight 

 hypogynous (fertile or sterile) stamens within the perianth. Fruit . . . ? 

 — A tree ; leaves alternate, petiolate, cordate -acuminate serrate 

 penninerved, sub-3-7-nerved at base ;^ flowers precocious ; capitules 

 terminal pedunculate ; bracts 2, subopposite, wide foliaceous, con- 

 formed and equal to leaves, petaloid coloured (white), involucrate and 

 finally expanded. {East Tihet.^) 



III? ala:^gie^. 



12. Alangimn Lamk. — Mowers hermaphrodite or rarely poly- 

 gamous ; receptacle concave, turbinate, campanulate, or subcylin- 

 drical, enclosing adnate germen. Calyx inserted at margin, subentire 

 truncate or 4-10-dentate. Petals 4-10, lorate or linear, valvate, 

 finally reflexed or revolute. Stamens inserted with perianth (epi- 

 gynous), equal in number and alternating with petals or 2-4 times 

 as many ; filaments free or connate at base, inserted under epigynous 

 disk ; anthers linear-elongate, introrse or laterally rimose. Germen 

 inferior, 1-2-locular or more rarely 3-locular, septa perfect or im- 

 perfect above ; style girt at base with epigynous cupular or pulvinate 

 disk, at stigmatose apex clavate or capitate, oftener minutely 4-go - 

 lobate. Ovule in each cell 1, inserted under apex, descending; 

 micropyle extrorsely (?) superior, finally oftener lateral. Fruit 

 drupaceous, crowned with calyx or its scar ; exocarp thin or thick 

 fleshy;, putamen more or less hard, sometimes crustaceous, 1-2- 

 spermous. Seed oblong ; integument thin ; albumen fleshy, externally 

 smooth or sometimes sinuate or ruminate ; cotyledons of axile embryo 

 foliaceous, digitinerved at base, or flat, or slightly corrugate or 

 sometimes contortuplicate ; radicle terete superior. — Trees or shrubs, 

 unarmed or sometimes spinescent, glabrous or tomentose ; leaves 

 alternate petiolate exstipulate, entire or angular-lobate, at base equal 

 or sometimes unequal, penninerved or sometimes digitinerved at base ; 

 flowers in axillary more or less compound ramose cymes ; branches 

 of inflorescence elongate or sometimes more or less contracted; 

 pedicels generally articulate. {Asia^ Oceania and trop. Africa, 

 Malacca.) See p. 271. 



1 The younger sericeous beneath or on both ^ gp^c. 1. D, involucrata H. Bn. loc. cit. 



sides. 



