70 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



are inserted 3-5 epigynous, valvate, afterwards reflexed petals/ and 

 a style thickened at the base, and with as many stigmatiferous branches 

 as there are cells in the ovary. In the male flower, the receptacle 

 does not become concave, and the calycinal collar disappears com- 

 pletely or nearly so. The perianth has only 3-5 valvate petals/ mth 

 which alternate an equal number of free stamens, with incurved fila- 

 ment, inserted under a central, glandular, and polygonal body, and 

 bilocular, introrse anthers, dehiscing by two longitudinal clefts. The 

 fruit is a drupe with monospermous putamens,^ and the seeds enclose 

 an embryo surrounded by a smooth albumen. Helwingia comprises 

 glabrous shrubs, one from the Himalaya, the other from China / The 

 leaves are alternate, penninerved, serrated, with glandular hairs often 

 found at the base and on the sides of the petiole. The inflorescence 

 is axillary ; but, trained along the median nerve of the axillant leaf, 

 it is disengaged about the middle of the upper surface.^ It is in 

 biparous and few- or even one-flowered cymes in the females, generally 

 richer in the males. 



Aucuha^ (fig. 54-56), forming a sub-series {Aucubece)m this group, 

 has dioecious and nearly always tetramerous flowers. In the male 

 flowers there is a small gamosepalous calyx with four teeth and four 

 alternate, valvate,'' caducous petals. Four stamens alternate with 

 the petals, inserted round a rudimentary gynaecium, having the 

 appearance of a central, cuplike disk, with four small obtuse lobes, ^ 

 and formed each of a free filament and a bilocular introrse anther, 

 dehiscing by two longitudinal clefts. In the female flower, the 

 receptacle takes the form of a deep, ovoid, or cylindrical sac, the 

 mouth of which bears four teethlike sepals and four alternate valvate 

 petals. The inferior ovary, lodged in the receptacular cavity, has a 

 single cell, and is surmounted by a short and thick style, the summit 

 of which, oblique and enlarged, is stigmatiferous, and its side has a 



1 They are greenish and have heen generally — Don, Edinb. Netv Phil. Journ. viii. 165. — Bl. 

 considered as ealicinal folioles. Fl. Jav. Lorauth. 5, not. — Spach, Suit, a Buffou, 



2 With a great many authors these are also so- viii. 88. — Ekdl. Gen. n. 4575. — Payer, Organog. 

 pals, the male flower being considered apetalous. 419, t. 105. — Lindl. Vcg. Kii gd. 703. — Ag. 



^ Two, thiee or four. Theor. Sgst. 303.— H. Bn. Payer Fam. Nat. 340 ; 



4 Thuxb. Fl. Jap. 31 ; Icon. Bee. iii. t. 1 Adansonia, v. 179. — B. H. Gen. 950, n. 7. — Et<- 



{Osj/)is).—Si-EB. et Zxjcc. Fl. Jap. 164, t. 86. basis Salisb. Prodr. 68. 



^ In the Indian species the limb of the leaf 7 Sometimes slightly induplicate above ; the 



may be more or less completely abortive. summit forms in the bud a small pendant obco- 



p Thlnb. Fl. Jap. 4, t. 12, 13.— Banks, le. PL nical key. 



Jap. t. 13. — J. Gen. 382. — Lam^. III. t. 759. — 8 There is sometimes a small depression in 



Poiu. Diet. Suppl. i. 537. — DC. Prodr. iv. 27-1. the centre, the rudiment of an ovarian cavity. 



