484 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



Gunnera perpensa. 



descendiug seed. Its coats ^ cover an abundant fleshy albumen, at 

 the summit of which is lodged a small embryo with short cotyledons 

 and superior radicle. Gunnera consists of evergreen herbaceous 

 plants, sometimes much developed, numbering some ten species, which 

 inhabit southern and eastern Africa, tropical and cool Oceania, and 

 the Andean and antarctic regions of South America.^ All the parts 



are often scabrid or hispid. The rhizome is 

 thick and short or slender and creeping ; it 

 bears alternate leaves, called radicle, close, 

 petiolate, sometimes accompanied by stipu- 

 liform bodies of variable appearance,^ with 

 limb entire, or crenelate, or lobed. The 

 flowers are collected in spikes or compound 

 clusters, the axis of which is slender or thick, 

 simple or with numerous ramifications closely 

 pressed together. In the monoecious spe- 

 cies, the female flowers are most frequently 

 at the lower part of the inflorescence, and 

 the male above; each may also be accompanied by two lateral 

 branches. 



Fig. 475. Long. sect, of 

 hermaphrodite flower {\). 



YII. HIPPURIS SERIES. 



Hipjpuris * (fig. 476-481) represents the lowest type of this group ; 

 for its flowers, hermaphrodite or polygamous and irregular, contain 

 only a monandrous andrceciuni and a gynaocium with a unilocular 

 ovary. The receptacle is sacciform, like that of Gunnera, and its 

 mouth is entire or slightly sinuous.^ In the anterior part of the 



^ Soft and purple in G. chilensis. 



2 R. et Pay. Fl. Per. i. t. 44.— Raoul, Choix 

 de Fl. t. 8.— Benn. Borsf. Fl. Jav. Far. 75, t. 15. 

 — Bl. Fijdr. 513; Mus. Lugd.-Bnt. ii. 100, 171. 

 —Hook. f. Fl. N.-Zel. i. 66 ; Man. N.-Zeal. Fl. 

 67 ; Fl. Tasm. 125 ; Fl. Antarct. ii. 274.— C. 

 Gay, Fl. Chil. ii. 362.— A. Gkay, Un. St. Exp. 

 Exp. Bot. i. 629, t. 78, 79.— Harv. and Sond. 

 Fl. Cap. ii. 571.— Oliv. FL Trop. Afr. ii. 405.— 

 Phil. Ann. Sc.Nat. ser. 4, vii. 90.— Hook, Icon. 

 t. 489, ^^O.—Bot. Mag. t. 2376.— Walp. Rep, 

 ii. 100 ; V. 672 ; Ann. vii. 941. 



3 Of uncertain nature. 



*h. Gen. D. 11.— Retz. Ohs. iii. 7, t. 1.— 



Adans. Fani. des PI. ii. 566. — Hellex. Diss, d^s 

 Rippur. Abo (1786).— J. Gen. 18 ; Ann. Mm. 

 iii. 323, t. 30.— Lamk. III. t. 5.— Poir. Diet. 

 Suppl". iv. 373.— G^RTN. Fruct. ii. 24, t. 84.— 

 Reichb. Iconogr. t. 86. — DO. Prodr. iii. 71. — 

 TuRP. Diet. Sc. Nat. Atl. t. 220.— Nees, Gen. ii. 

 fasc. 8, t. 14.— Spach, Suit, a Buffon, iv. 443. — 

 Endl. Gen. n. 6134.— B. H. Gen. 675, n. 6.— 

 H. Bn. Payer Fam. Nat. 378. — limnopeuce 

 Vaill. Act. Acad. Par. (1719), t. l.—Pinastclla 

 Dill. Nov. Gen. 168. 



° The marginal collar is especially prominent 

 outside, under the stamen. 



