94 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



larger than the others and hermaphrodite or female. In Echinopliora^ 

 (fig. 79, 80), the general inflorescence of which is fundamentally that 

 of Daiicus, the separation of sexes is still more complete, in that each 

 umbellule has one central sessile flower, alone female and herma- 

 phrodite (fig. 79). Around it are unequal pedicels,^ each bearing a 



Echinophora radians. 



Fig. 79. Umbellule, the central flower 

 alone fertile. 



Fig. 80. Fruit surrounded by hardened 

 and incurved pedicels. 



male flower, in construction like that of Daucus, with very unequal 

 petals, inflexed summit, and two styles of large conical basilar dila- 

 tation. The ovary has two cells, each containing a descending ovule, 

 with long funicle and micropyle exterior. In the fruit, the transverse 

 section of which is nearly circular, one of the cells is often aborted. 

 There are no prominent ridges, or only primary ones, in all cases 

 scarcely perceptible. What gives a peculiar appearance to this fruit 

 (fig. 80) is that the male pedicels are hardened around it, as well as 

 the receptacle of the terminant flower, and all these pedicels incurving 

 round it, it is, as it were, encased within them. In the species of 

 which the genus Vycnocijcla ^ has been made, the receptacle of the 

 umbellule and the pedicels, less incurved, form only a sort of cupule 

 in the centre of which the fruit is situated without being encased. 

 The vittae are variable in number, often indefinite, whilst in the true 

 Echinophora, they are ordinarily equal in number to that of the 



1 T. Inst. 566, t. 423 (not Riv.).— L. Gen. n. 

 329.— Adans. Fcan. des PI. ii. 102.— J. Gen. 225. 

 — Lamk. Diet. ii. 338 ; III. t. 190.— Lag. Aman. 

 ii. 106.— Koch, Umbell. 135.— DC. Mem. 64, 

 t. 16; Frodr. iv. 234.— Meissn. Gen. 150 (108). 

 — Endl. Gen. n. 4522.— B. H. Gen. 881, n. 27. 

 — Anisosciadium DC. Mem, 63, t. 15; Frodr. 



iv. 234. — Meissn. Gen. 150. — Endl. Gen. n. 

 4520. 



' The exterior are the most developed. 



3 LiNDL.»i2o7/;. III. Mimal. 232, t. 51.— Endl. 

 Gen. n. 4521.— B. H. Gen. 881, n. 28.— Hook. 

 Fl. Ind. ii. 694. — Dicyclophora Boiss. Ann. Sc. 

 Nat. ser. 3, ii. 89, 



