160 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



Lagoecia cuminoides. 



and grouped in fascicles of simple umbels. The males have a double 

 perianth resembling a star with ten branches, and five long exserted 



stamens. The females, few and sur- 

 rounded with accrescent bracts, have an 

 elongate gourd -like ovary and fruit, 

 with a neck surmounted by the perianth 

 and two long subulate styles. Most 

 frequently one of the two cells is 

 aborted and remains sterile, rudimen- 

 tary ; by that, this genus is interme- 

 diate between the preceding and the 

 three following genera, in which there 

 is only one carpellar cavity at adult age. 

 Apart from this common character 

 these differ sufficiently in other respects 

 from each other to constitute each a 

 separate sub-series. Two of them, 

 Petagnia and Actinotus, have a double 

 style with one uniovulate cell in the 

 ovary. The latter has simple umbels 

 with an involucre similar to that of 

 Astrantia, polygamous flowers and an 

 unsymmetrical fruit. They are Aus- 

 tralian, and sometimes csespitose plants 

 as those named Hemiphues, But most 

 ^ frequently they 



are branched 

 herbs with den- 

 tate lobed or 

 dissected 

 leaves. Petag- 

 nia (fig. 179, 

 180) is a per- 

 ennial herb 

 from Sicily 

 having the 



common organs of vegetation of our Sanicula ; but its dichotomous 

 inflorescences resemble those of a Caryophyllea, The female or herma- 

 phrodite flowers, sessile in the dichotomies, have a conical ovary with 



Fig. 181. Floral head. 



Fig. 182. Diagram. 



