ONAGRARIACE^. 



483, 



rous)/ there is an ovoid or compressed sacciform receptacle, the cavity 

 of which contains the adnate and inferior ovary, and the margin of 

 which bears the perianth and androecium. First on opening are seen 

 two small projections, anterior and posterior, ordinarily considered as 

 sepals, and on the sides, alternating with these projections, two 



Gunnera chilensis. 



Fig. 473. Portion 

 of infloresGence. 



Fig. 472. Habit {■^). 



Fig. 474. Flower. 



folioles, much more developed, when they exist, and regarded as two 

 lateral petals.^ Superposed to these two folioles are two epigynous 

 stamens with free jS.laments and basifixed, erect, bilocular anthers, 

 dehiscing by two longitudinal nearly marginal clefts. In the female 

 flowers they are more or less completely aborted. The gynaecium, 

 which totally or partly disappears in the male flower, is composed of 

 an inferior unilocular ovary, surmounted by two stylary branches, 

 subulate and charged with stigmatic papillse. Near the top of the 

 ovarian cell is inserted a single descending ovule,^ with the micropyle 

 superior and lateral to the placenta. The fruit is a small drupe with 

 soft pulp,* and the putamen, crustaceous and fragile, contains one 



Suppl. ii. 863 ; III. t. 801.— Endl. Gen. i . 1889. 

 B. H. Gen. 676, n. 7.— H. Bn. Payer Fam. Nat. 

 379 ; Adansonia, xii. 38.— A. DC. Prodr. xvi. 

 sect. ii. 597. — Perpensum Burm. Prodr. Fl. Cap. 

 26. — Panke Feuill. Obs. ii. t. 30. — Misandra 

 CoMMERS. ex J. Gen. 405. — Disomene Banks et 

 Sol. (ex Fokst. Gomm. Gostt. ix. 45. — Gaudich. 

 Freyc. Voy. Boi. 512. — Milligania Hook. r. Rook. 

 Ic. t. 2^^.—Pankea (Erst. Fl. Nov. Centr.-Amer. 

 6 {Nat. For. Vid. 1857). — Pseudo- Gunner a 



I (Erst. — Gunneropsis (Erst. ■ — Misandropsis 

 (Erst. loc. cit. 

 I 



1 Sometimes, however, trimerous. 



2 These would be sepals if the alternate teeth 

 proceeded only from a marginal projection 

 the receptacle. They are sometimes cucullate, 

 and may also, doubtless, be three in number. 

 (See Adansonia, xii. 38.) 



3 Anatropous or peritropous (?). 



■* In G. chilensis, the fruit of which ripens 

 pretty well in our conservatories, the exterior 

 membrane of the drupaceous fruit is orange- 

 coloured. 



31-2 



