384 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



Vismia guianensis. 



found an equal number of hypogynous scales. The gynaecium, free 

 and superior, is composed of an ovary with five alternipetalous cells/ 

 surmounted by a style almost immediately divided into five branches, 

 the stigmatiferous extremity of which is dilated to a small head. 

 IN'ear the internal angle of each ovarian cell is a placenta the two 

 vertical lobes of which are covered with an indefinite number of small 

 oblique or transverse anatropous ovules. The fruit is a berry, some- 

 times but little fleshy, and the seeds which it contains enclose under 

 their coats a fleshy embryo, without albumen, 

 straight or curved, with short radicle and elon- 

 gate cotyledons, flattened or semi- cylindrical. 

 Vismia consists of some fifteen species^ of trees 

 or shrubs growing in the tropical regions of 

 America or Africa. The leaves are opposite, 

 entire, without stipules, glabrous or downy, 

 with translucid reservoirs of essential oil. The 

 flowers^ are at the extremities of the branches 

 in clusters of cymes more or less ramified. 

 The two genera Haronga and Psorospermiinij 

 growing in Madagascar and tropical western Africa, differ very little 

 from Vismia, of which they have the flower and organs of vegetation. 

 The fruit of Haronga ^ is a drupe of five stones, and in each of the 

 ovarian cells, complete or incomplete, there are generally two or 

 rarely three ascending, anatropous ovules, with the micropyle inferior 

 and exterior. It consists of shrubs with opposite leaves and very 

 numerous flowers,^ collected in terminal compound or corymbiform 

 cymes. Usually only one species is described.^ Psorosjjermum ^ has 

 in each ovarian cell only one or two ovules, directed like those of Ha- 

 ronga.^ The fruit is wholly fleshy, but the embryo has convolute 

 cotyledons. It consists of trees and shrubs, similar to Vismia in 



Fig. 342. Diagram. 



1 Complete or incomplete. 



2 AUBL. Guian. t. 311, 312 {Hypericum). — H. 

 B. K. Nov. Gen. et Spec. v. 181, t. 454 {Vismia). 

 A. S.-H. Fl. Bras. Mer. i. t, 68.— Griseb. Fl. 

 Brit. W.-Ind. 111.— Hook. f. Niger, 243.— Oliv. 

 Fl. Trap. Afr. i. 160.— W alp. Rep. i. 391 ; v. 

 144 ; Ami. ii. 188 ; iv. 363 ; vii. 333. 



3 Yellow. 



4 Dup.-Tii. Nov. Gen. Madag. 15.— DC. Prodr. 

 i. 541 (part).— Spach, Suit, d Btiffon, v. 355; 

 Ann. Se. Nat. ser. 2, v. 350.— Endl. Gen. n. 

 5468.— Payer, Fam. Nat. 79.— B. H. Gen. 167, 

 n. 8.— Baker, FL Maurit. \b. — Ilarongaua 



LaxMK. III. t. 645. — AronganaV^'R.?,. Enchirid.n. 

 91 (part), 



» The anthers are at first introrse, and are 

 early reversed (fig. 342). 



•5 H. madogascariensis Chois. Hijper. 34 ; DC. 

 Frodr. i. 541.— Oliv. Fl. Trop. Afr. i. 160.— 

 Ai-ungana paniculata Feus. loc. cit. — ?Psorosper' 

 mmn leonense Turcz. Bull. Mosc. xxxvi. 578. 



7 Spach, Ann. Sc. Nat. ser. 2, v. 157, 350 ; 

 Suit, a Buffon, v. 351.— Exdl. Gen. n. 5467.— 

 B. H. Gen. 167, 980. 



^ Which pei'haps might rather he made only 

 a section with endocarp not hardened. 



