AWD ANATOMY OF THE GENUS MTSTEOPETALOX. 149 



fluted, but I liave not been able to distinguish any such indentations. In most grains one 

 prominent nucleus is visible, although two can be made out in some of the larger grains. 

 At the bottom of the shallow cup formed by tlie fusion of the bases of the perianth 

 segments, there occurs a parenchymatous protuberance, the cells of which resemble those 

 of the "arilloid " swelling which surrounds the base of the ovary. This protuberance is 

 continued into a short projection whose cells are filled with ** mystrin." This probably 

 represents the rudimentary ovary mentioned by Harvey and by Griffith, but none of my 

 sections exhibits any indication of distinct ovarial structure (fig. 16). 



The Female Flower. 



Descriptions of the female flower of M. Thomii alone are given by Griffith and 

 Harvey, the latter of whom only figures it ; Harvey also figures the female flower of 

 M. Folemmmi but gives no account of it. Harvey's drawings show, approximately, 

 equal bracts, ciliate along the margins, and the anterior segment with a hairy 

 external median ridge. Centrally placed (in M. Volemanm) lies a swollen, cup-shaped 

 wrinkled *' torus " from which springs the ovary, bearing at its apex a minute, trifid, 

 tubular perianth, and a long style, without any prominent stigma. Harvey figures the 

 bracts of M. Folemanni both in **anthesis" and in the fruiting condition as 

 approximately of the same length, the anterior bract narrowing to its base and covered 

 with hairs, while the latero-posterior bracts are broader and only marginally ciliate. 

 The bracts of the female flower of Jf. Thomii, on the other hand, are, according to 

 Harvey's figures, of equal length in anthesis, but, in the fruiting condition, the latero- 

 posterior bracts are represented as about twice the length of the anterior bract. 

 Again, the perianth of the female flower of M. Thomii is an almost spherical cup, with 

 a trilobed margin, contrasting, in this respect, with the narrow, tubular, trifid perianth 

 of M. Folemanni. Harvey also figures the ovary as basally pointed, the basal 

 projection rounded off and seated in the central depression of the "torus." Griffitl 

 describes the ovary of M. Thomii as '^globosum, parce puberulum, 

 Harvey also mentions the " minutely hispidulous " character of the wall of the ovary. 



As my own observations diff^er in some respects from those of Harvey, it may be more 

 convenient to describe the whole flower de novo. The description, it may be prefaced, 

 is that of a flower whose ovule had been fertilised, although the style was still present 



at the apex of the ovary. 



The flowers are apparently proterogynous, for in those inflorescences which had 

 mature male flowers with anthers still closed or in the act of dehiscing, the female 

 flowers had lost their stvles and perianths, and the ovary had become transformed into a 

 small, almost black fruit with a sclerotic pericarp. In the single younger inflorescence 

 amongst my material the male flowers were still immature, while the bracts of the 

 female flowers already enclosed young fruits but with styles still attached. 



In a letter from Mrs. Solly, accompanying the specimens, she makes an mterestmg 

 observation on the pollination of Mystropetalon. My correspondent writes as follo\; 



basi 



