24 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



the anthers. Eut the flower is tetramerous, and the placentas, 

 instead of occupying the internal angle of the ovarian cells, are 



situated either very near the 



Pte^-nandra {Eibessia) simplex. ^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ generally, at a 



variable height from the ex- 

 ternal coat. In those called 

 Kihessia and hitherto con- 

 sidered generically distinct, 

 but with us constitute only a 

 section of one and the same 

 genus, the calyx is detached 

 as a conical hood, or opens 

 irregularly at the period of 

 anthesis, or even divides regu- 

 larly above into four shallow 

 lobes. What is more easily 

 distinguished, though it has 

 not, in our opinion, a generic 

 value, is, that the style thickens 

 more and is traversed by ridges 

 more or less marked than in 

 the true Fternandra, and that 



the receptacle is externally clothed with straight or hooked prickles. 



They are Malayan ' shrubs with entire and trinerved leaves. 



Fig. 37. Flower. 



Fig. 38. 1-ong. sect, 

 of flower. 



III. BLAKE A SEEIES. 



Blakea ^ (fig. 39) has given its name to a series in which the ovary 

 is adnate at the bottom of the hemispherical and campanulate 

 receptacular sac, the margin of which supports a persistent calyx of 



1 We have been unable to analyze Plethian- 

 dra Motleyif a shrub of Borneo, which, according 

 to the description given of it, approaches the 

 preceding genera, but differs from them by its 

 hexamerous flowers, with 4-celled ovary and 

 stamens numbering thirty. 



2 L. Gen. n. 593.— J. Gsn. 328.— Don, Mem. 



Wern. Soc. iv. 323.— DC. Prodr. iii. 195; Jlem. 

 i. 80.— Endl. Geji. n. 6261.— Naud. J?in. Sc. 

 Nat. ser. 3, xviii. 142.— B. H. Gen. 770, n. 127. 

 Tri. Melast. 148.— Valdesia, R. et Pa v. Prodr. 

 67, t. 11. — Drepanaudrum Neck. EUm. n. 793. 

 — Pyxidanthus Naud. loc. cit. xviii. 150, t. 6. 



