MYRTACEM. 



309 



calyx is formed of five imbricate sepals, the margins of whicli are 

 contiguous for only a short distance. Five sessile petals alternate 

 with the sepals and are imbricate in prefloration. The stamens 

 are very numerous, epigynous, and at adult age disposed without 

 any apparent order J Each is formed of a free filament, inflexed in 



Myrtus communis. 



Fig. 282. Seed (|). Fig. 281. Fruit (f). 



Fig. 278. Flower. 



Fig. 283. Long, 

 sect, of seed. 



the bud, and of a short bilocular introrse anther ^ dehiscing by two 

 longitudinal clefts.^ The inferior ovary contains two or three cells 

 in the internal angle of which is found a placenta bearing an indefi- 

 nite number of small anatropous ovules. The fruit surmounted by 

 the remains of the now fleshy calyx, is a berry enclosing one or 

 several reniform seeds,* with a large fleshy hilum, hard coats, covering 

 a curved fleshy embryo, destitute of albumen. The summit of the 

 cotyledons and that of the radicle are turned towards the umbilicum. 

 The common Myrtle is a shrub with simple opposite leaves, without 

 stipules, permeated with reservoirs of an odorous essence. The 

 flowers are ordinarily solitary, and the axillary peduncle bears two 

 lateral bracteoles in the upper part. 



49.— ^wamomz5 GrRisEB. Fl,Brit.\W.-Ind. 240.— 

 Blepharocalyx Bekg, Zimicea, xxvii. 412 ; xxix. 

 256. — Macropsidium Bl. Mus. Lugd.-Bat, i. 85. 

 — ? Temus Mol. Chil. 153.— DC. Prodr. i. 77.— 

 C. Gay, Fl. Chil. i. 60.— Phil. Bot. Zeit. (1857), 

 392, 393. — Temu Berg, Linncea, xxx. 710. — 

 Myrteola Berg, Linncea, xxvii. 393 ; xxix. 252 ; 

 xxx. 70d.— Ugni Turcz. Bull. Mosc. (1848), i. 

 579. — Myrcianthes Berg, Linncea, xxvii. 315 

 (incl. : Calycolpus Berg, Lunia A. Gray, Pseu- 

 docaryophyllus Berg). 



1 The stamens originate in Myrtus, as in 

 Callistemon, Eucalyptus, by groups superposed to 

 the petals (Payer, Organog. 461), but they re- 

 main distinct to the end in Callistemon, whilst 

 in the Myrtles " they are soon confused with 

 each other so that they cannot be recognized." 



2 Basifixed, or versatile. 



3 The pollen, in all the Mtjrtacem of our first 

 three series, where it has been studied, has 

 appeared " depressed, triangular, the sides often 

 a little reentrant ; three very slight folds, which 

 unite at the poles on a triangular piece; in 

 water approaching more or less a spherical 

 form, producing small papilla3 at the angles. 

 Grains small, transparent, not viscous." (H. 

 MoHL. Ann, So. Nat. ser. 2, iii. 333). The bands 

 may be more or less wanting (in certain species 

 of Psidium), and the angles bear but slightly 

 prominent papillae {Myrcia). 



4 They are sometimes separated by the rudi- 

 ments of false partitions, as happens in Myrteola 

 {Leandria A. GnAY). 



