NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



Anisomallon cbinsiiefulium. 



Fig. 329. Longitudinal section of fruit (f). 



and for the same reason, there is a difference of growth in their different 

 portions. The scar of the style approaches therefore more or less 

 to the base of the fruit, which, in Apochjtcs, may present on each 

 side a small fleshy thickening. In the Anisomallon, inhabiting New 



Caledonia, this swelling becomes 

 considerable, as voluminous as the 

 fruit itself, a drupe with flesh of little 

 thickness, accompanied on the side 

 of the reciu'ved micropyle by this 

 bacciform mass (fig. 329). The 

 calyx is that of Lasiunthcra. In 

 Anisomallon the petals present 

 within the internal face a project- 

 ing appendage perpendicular to 

 their surface, dividing the conca- 

 vity into two elongated niches in 

 each of which is sheltered an anther cell. Those of Apodijtes are 

 glabrous and naked. This last genus inhabits the warm regions of 

 Asia and Africa. 



In Pcnnantia, forming by itself a small secondary group, the 

 general organisation of the polygamous-diœcious flowers is the same 

 as in the preceding genera, but the calyx disappears almost com- 

 pletely, and is only represented by a small and but slightly projecting 

 ring, the staminal filaments are folded twice upon themselves at the 

 back of the anther, above their point of attachment, and the ovary is 

 uniovulate. The Pcnnantias are Oceanian. 



Leptaulus, consisting of shrubs from tropical Western Africa and 

 Madagascar, is distinguished fi-om all the preceding types by the 

 gamopetalous corolla, tubular and sometimes very long, towards 

 whose throat the stamens are attached. The flowers are arranged in 

 cymes contracted and drawn up until beside a leaf much higher 

 than that to the axil of which they in reality answer. The 

 embryo is always, like those of the above genera, apiculate and very 

 small, but the fleshy albumen is multilobate. At the same time the 

 imbricate gamosepalous calyx is divided much more deeply. In the 

 Gonocaryum, trees from tropical south-eastern Africa, the sepals 

 become completely free. The valvate petals are joined together by 

 the medium of the staminal filaments, but the corolla is not really 

 in a single piece, like that of Lej>ta,ulus, of which Gonocanjum has 



