RUBIACE2E. 



3^6 



Symphoricarpos vulgaris. 



concave gourdlike receptacle, surmounted by a narrow neck. The 

 ovary is lodged in the cavity and the perianth is inserted on the 

 margin of the orifice. The latter consists of a calyx with five unequal 

 divisions, free or nearly so ; the two anterior usually much larger 

 than the others ; and a regular funnel-shaped corolla, the tube of 

 which is enlarged at the base to a sort of small pouch in which are 

 lodged five glands attached to the walls 

 alternately with the sepals. The limb 

 is divided into five lobes, equal or nearly 

 so, quincuncially imbricate in the bud.^ 

 The stamens are five in number, in- 

 serted in the neck of the corolla, with 

 nearly equal filaments and bilocular 

 introrse anthers dehiscing by two longi- 

 tudinal clefts. The inferior ovary is 

 surmounted by a style the exserted 

 summit of which is dilated to a depressed 

 stigmatiferous head. In each of the 

 oppositipetalous ovarian cells is an axile 

 placenta with ovules in two vertical 

 series, obliquely descending, anatropous 

 and with their raphes turned towards 

 those of the next series.^ The fruit is 

 a berry, surmounted by the persistent 

 calyx, with five polyspermous cells, the 



seeds of which contain a fleshy albumen and a small almost cylindrical 

 embryo. Leycesteria is a shrub of the temperate regions of India, 

 divided from the base into weak branches, hollow except at the nodes. 

 There are inserted opposite (or rarely ternate) leaves, with petioles 

 connate at the base, entire or dentate, often lobed on young plants. 

 The inflorescences ^ are terminal, consisting of spikes of small 

 biparous opposite cymes with large bracts more or less connate, the 

 lateral wide and foliaceous. 



PentapyxiSf Himalayan shrubs, differs little from Leycesteria: 

 having pentamerous flowers, a deeply divided calyx, a funnel-shaped 

 campanulate corolla, imbricate or contorted, and an ovary with five 

 multiovulate cells, which becomes a polyspermous berry. But the 



Fig. 365. Fructiferous branch. 



^ Sometimes cochleate. 



2 Thoy have only an incomplete coat. 



3 The flowers are white, with a dull purple 

 calyx ; the fruit is led, afterwards blackish, 



A a 2 



