﻿MR. J. MIERS ON THE LECYTHlDACEiE. 159 



a thick fleshy column in the axis attached to the operculum, when, on the ripening of 

 the fruit, the dissepiments and placentae become resolved into a pulp, which envelops 

 the seeds, all escaping together with the decay of the operculum. There are usually 

 6 seeds in each cell, nearly the size and shape of a common bean, suspended within the 

 pulp by a fleshy tortuous funicle of nearly its own size ; the testa is polished, crustaceous, 

 with a large annular micropyle ; a thin inner integument invests an exalbuminous embryo, 

 consisting of two large oval plano-convex cotyledons, conjoined near the hilum by a 

 small terete radicle, and embracing within their margin a conspicuous plumule. 



In Couroupita (Plate XXXIII. b), as in the following genera, we find a floral structure 

 analoo-ous in its peculiarities to that of Gtistavia, but offering a difi'erent appearance, 

 owing to a modification in the form of its singular androphorum. The flowers are large, 

 supported upon a short pedicel, with 1 bract above and 2 below it, all very deciduous ; 

 the free portion of its adnate calyx rises above the ovary in the form of 6 smallish fleshy 

 very convex sepals, somewhat imbricated in aestivation ; it has 6, rarely 7, very large 

 concave coloured petals, of unequal size, deeply imbricated in aestivation, their claws 

 being inserted between the epigynous disk and the staminiferous ring of the andro- 

 phorum, all these fixed together as in Gustama. The androphorum is large, with a 

 shallow cup-shaped annular ring at its base, covered by numerous short appendages, 

 each bearing a stamen ; but this ring does not expand equally all round as m Gustama ; 

 on the contrary, its enlargement takes place on one side only, under the form of a ligulur 

 fleshy plate, twice the length and as broad as the basal staminiferous ring, bare between 

 its parallel margins, coiling gradually inwards, and considerably at its extremity, where 

 it forms an inverted globular hood, concealing the ovary and basal ring ; the interior 

 of this hood is densely echinated by numerous subterete appendages, truncated at their 

 summit, where each bears a stamen, consisting of a short thread-like filament, sup- 

 porting a small anther of 2 collateral oval cells, bursting outwardly and longitudinally. 

 The staminiferous appendages of the basal ring differ from the others only in being much 

 shorter. By analogy we may infer that this androphorum, as in Gustavia, is composed 

 of many superposed plates agglutinated together, gradually shorter in length, fringed l)y 

 the incision of their marginal extremities into numerous segments or appendages, 

 assuming an imbricated and echinated appearance. We may sec that this structure 

 is not hypothetical but real, by a section made across the fleshy plate of the ligula, when 

 it is seen marked by many particoloured lines indicating a stratified structure analogous 

 to the inner bark of Lecythis, which beaten when diy resolves itself into many mem- 

 branaceous sheets. The vertex of the ovary of Couroupita, within the area of the 

 epigynous disk, is much elevated in a pulvinate form, and is deeply hollow in the 

 middle, where a short thick conical style is seen, surmounted by a 6-rayed sessile sul- 

 cated stigma ; the inferior portion of the ovary is 6-celled, with several ovules in each 

 cell, in a double series, suspended by separate funicles from the bihimellar placenta?, 

 which extend from the upper part of the axis into the cavities of the cells. This pla- 

 centation is considered by Dr. Criiger ' to be normally parietal, as in Cucurbiiacece, the 

 radiating parietal lamellary placentiE (dissepiments) having their ovuligerous margins 



On the development of the flower of Couroupta, in Linnaca, xxu p. 7 < 4. 



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