16 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



Ma) 



•umia muHCOsa. 



appendage situated above the insertion of the filament ; but this 

 appendage is short and subulate ; sometimes even it is almost entirely 

 wanting. In these two genera the anther moreover is elongate, 

 pointed, sessile or nearly so to the top of the filament and opens by 

 an apical pore. 



Miconia has also given its name to a tribe (Micomece) of this 

 family. The flowers are 4-8-merous and the stamens, disposed in 



two verticils, are 

 slightly unequal, but 

 are most frequently 

 inserted at two dif- 

 ferent levels. They 

 are exceptionally 

 four or indefinite in 

 number. The fila- 

 ments are incurved 

 in the bud and the 

 anthers are very va- 

 riable in form, short 

 or elongate, oblong 

 or linear, subulate, 

 more rarely obovate 

 or cuneiform, de- 



Fiof. 25. Flower. 



hiscing by one or 

 two apical pores. 

 The connective is 



sometimes by one or two longitudinal clefts, 

 without any prominence, or dilated at the base, or further prolonged 

 at the sides, within or at the back, in one or two tubercles or 

 auricles. Notwithstanding all these differences, the integrity of this 

 genus, comprising more than three hundred species, has latterly been 

 maintained, because it has been rightly recognized that they were 

 characters of no generic value in such a group. The ovary is adnate 

 to the concavity of the receptacle to a very variable extent, some- 

 times at the base only, sometimes for nearly the entire height, with 

 all intermediate degrees, and it contains from two to five cells, the 

 anile placenta of which bears a definite (2-8) or more generally an 

 indefinite number of ovules. The fruit is bacciform, but little fleshy, 

 often dry or coriaceous. Miconia is exclusively American. The 

 leaves are entire or dentelate, and the branched inflorescence, com- 



