168 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



Meryta coriacea. 



Meryta coriacea. 



Fig. 218. Male flower {\). 



Fig. 219. Long. sect, of 

 female flower (^). 



an inferior ovary, but with no trace of calyx (fig. 219). The stamens, 

 which alternate with the petals and are the same in number, have 

 generally a distinct filament and anther ; but 

 the latter is sterile. The fruit is a drupe with 



a variable number of mo- 

 nospermous patamens, 

 succeeding an ovary sur- 

 mounted by as many 

 recurved stamens as there 

 are cells; the latter con- 

 tain each a descending 

 ovule, with micropyle 

 superior and exterior and 

 funicle shghtly thickened above the micropyle, 

 as in many Araliece. They are glabrous trees 

 of Oceania, especially abundant in New Cale- 

 donia, with large simple penninerved leaves, and inflorescences in 

 often very ramified clusters, composed of small capitules frequently 

 with tolerably well-developed membranous bracts. 



Arthrophyllum (fig. 220) comprises plants of Malaya and the 



Indian archipelago, the principal charac- 

 ter of which is a unilocular and uniovulate 

 ovary like that of Eremopanax ; but the 

 albumen is deeply ruminate. The flowers 

 are pentamerous and have a short style 

 with terminal stigma. The fruit is regu- 

 larly ovoid or spherical. The leaves are 

 generally alternate, pinnate or bipinnate, 

 and the flowers are united in simple or 

 compound umbels often surrounded by 

 one or more simple leaves. The pedicels 

 are sometimes constricted and more or 

 less distinctly articulate under the flower. 

 Mastixia, generally referred to other 

 families than Arthrophyllum, is either con- 

 generic, or so analogous that, in our 

 opinion, it must be placed very near. 

 The habit, however, differs considerably : it has simple entire leaves, 

 turning black by desiccation, opposite or alternate, and flowers in 



Art h rophyllum javanicMn . 



Fig. 220. Long, sect, of 

 flower (f). 



