MYRTACE^. 335 



those of the upper series, five in number/ have their placenta parietal; 

 in those of the lower series, three or more rarely five in number, it 

 is in the internal angle. The ovules on each placenta are numerous, 

 multiseriate, anatropous.^ The fruit is a coriaceous corticate berry, 

 surmounted by the persistent calyx and divided by membranous par- 

 titions into a variable number of irregular and polyspermous cells. 

 The seeds, sessile or supported by a soft funicle, is distributed among 

 them ; this deforms ^ the outer coat which is thick, fleshy, pulpy, 

 and the only portion edible. Interior to this is a very hard coat. 

 The embryo, destitute of albumen, has a short radicle and two folia- 

 ceous cotyledons, auriculate at the base, rolled spirally round each 

 other, like that of a great many Comhretacece. The Pomegranates, 

 of which several species have been described, but of which there is 

 probably only one,* are shrubs of northern Africa and, as said, of 

 western Asia, introduced into the warm and temperate regions of 

 nearly the whole world. Their branches, sometimes spinous, are 

 clothed with alternate or nearly opposite leaves or fasciculate at the 

 nodal levels, obovate-oblong, entire, penninerved, without stipules. 

 The flowers are axillary, solitary, or grouped in few-flowered cymes, 

 with short pedicels. 



This family is one of those which the older botanists suspected, so 

 to speak, before even it was well defined. B. de Jussieu ^ designated 

 it in 1759, under the name of Myrtus. Adanson,^ in 1763, distin- 

 guished a family of Myrtles, very natural and admitted by A. L. de 

 Jussieu 7 under the same name. E,. Brown,^ in 1814, gave it the 

 name Myrtacece, soon followed by De Candolle,^ who included in 

 this family forty-seven genera, among which Grossostylis, Petalotoma 

 {Barraldeia\ Goitjpoui (?), belong to other families. In 1841, 

 ScHAUER ^° published a monograph, which has become a standard, 



by a swing movement ; so that the organic ^'«'^« L- — Malum punicum Lob. Ic. ii. 130. — 



summit of this ovary is finally placed lower Malus punica Bauh. 



than its base. ^ ¥,Ti.A.L.de Jtiss. Gen. Ixx. 



1 They are superposed to the sepals. ^ Fam. des PI. ii. 86, Fam. 14. 



2 They have a double coat. ^ Op. cit. 322, Ord. viii. Myrti (1789) ; Diet. 



3 Whence the facets of their surface (fig. 337). Sc. Nat. xxxiv. 94 {Myrtece). 



*» P. Granatwm L. Spec. 676. — Poit. and * Mind. Voy. 14 ; Misc. Works (ed. Benn.), 



TuRP. Arbr. Fr. 22.— Don. £dinb. New Fhil. i. 18, 311. 



Journ. i. 134. — Wight and Arn. Frodr. i. 327. ' Theor. Elem. {MyrtineiB) ; Prodr. iii. 207, 



—Sims, Bot. Mag. t. 634, 1832.— Andr. Bot. Ord. 79 {Myrtacece). 



Eepos. t. 9C.— Wight, III. t. 97.— Gren. et '" Linncea, xvii. 235 : Aov. Act. Nat. Cur. 



GoDR. Fl. de Fr. i. 575.— P. sylvestris T.—F. xix. Suppl. ii. 



I 



