NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS, 



have eveu been a distinct family ; but they affect the closest affinity 

 with Drypetes. They have the aspect, foliage, fruit, and often the female 

 flower of it ; but their stamens, two or three in number, free or 

 diadeljjhous, are inserted at the centre of the flower, and not around 



PiUrmijiva So.rlmrylt i 



B'ig. 246. Gyiueceuui (-1) Fig'. 214. Jlalu bud f. Fig. 24Ô. Expanded I'ig. 247. Longitudinal 



male flovrer. section of gynœceiun. 



a rudiment of the gynasceum; characters in short which belong, 

 properly speaking, to all the Phyllantheœ. The known species are 

 Indian. Longefia, which inhabits New Caledonia, is distinguished 

 from the precediug genera by its style branches, instead of occupying 

 the summit of the ovary, being thrown back towards its periphery ; 

 in this respect, it is analogous to Bcrnardia among the uniovulate 

 genera. The first known species had numerous stamens. In a 

 second species they are occasionally nearly definite. In this genus, 

 the presence of a central body is not constant ; but it is sometimes 

 observed. The leaves are opposite. In the species of Bweat'ia, from 

 the Siime country, the leaves are also opposite ; the stamens are 

 numerous, the gynseceuin is tri- or tetramerous, with a central style ; 

 and the capsular fruit encloses seeds provided with a laciniate and 

 coloured aril, proceeding at the same time from the micropyle, the 

 hilum, and oven the remains of the obturator. The Petalostigmas^ 

 Australian shrubs, are characterised, not only by the development 

 in fleshy blades of their style branches, but also by the 

 numerous central stamens, and fruits in part fleshy, though 

 dehiscent, in which each cell is divided by a false partition 

 into two monospermous compartments. Hi/œiianche^ an abnormal 

 genus from Southern Africa, has male flowers, with sepals in 

 very variable number, like the stamens, inserted round the 

 empty centre of the irregular receptacle. The fruit with three 



