324 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



middle. It is charged with ovules indefinite in number, rarely few.^ 

 At the margin of the receptacle are inserted a short calyx with 

 three, four or five teeth, short or rarely foliaceous, not unfrequently 

 accompanied with a variable number of alternate (stipulary ?) 

 denticules, and a valvate rotate, funnel-shaped or hypocrateriform 



Oldenlandia Beppeana. 



'ig. 312, Long. sect, 

 of flower X\). 



Fig. 313. Seed {^). 



Fig. 311. Floriferous branch. 



Fig. 314. Long. sect, 

 of seed. 



corolla, bearing an equal number of alternate stamens, with bilocular, 

 introrse, enclosed or exserted anthers. The fruit is a capsule, often 

 membranous, variable in form, loculicidal above or in its entire 

 height, more rarely indehiscent, with seeds very variable, often 

 indefinite, in number, which, round or polyhedral,^ smooth or granular, 

 enclose in a fleshy albumen an embryo usually straight, cylindrical 

 or claviform. They are herbaceous or shrubby plants, with opposite, 

 rarely verticillate leaves, and stipules simple or divided, sometimes 

 into hairs. The flowers^ are -in more or less ramified cymes, often 

 biparous, terminal or axillary ; rarely solitary or few. In a small 



' Exceptionally they are, it is said, solitary. 

 They have but one coat, generally very incom- 

 plete, sometimes even almost nil. 



2 Sometimes prolonged to a wing. 



^ Small, white, yellowish, reddish or violet. 



