NATURAL HISTORY OP PLANTS. 



V. PnYTOCRENE SEEIES. 



The flowers of Phytocrene ^ (fig. 330-333) are dicecions, very 

 analogous to those of Mafpia. In the male a small convex receptacle 

 supports a perianth,^ with three or four valvate leaves, more or less 

 coherent at first at the base, then completely free, reflexed at the 

 apex, valvate in the prefloration. The androceum is composed of 

 an equal number of alternate stamens, whose free exserted filaments 



Fhytocreiie macroplujUa. 



Fig. 330. Male flower (-|). 



Fig. 331. Longitudinal section of female flower [\.) 



arc attached towards the base of a small rudiment of a columnar, 

 upright gynœceum, surmounted by a more or less voluminous bundle 

 of hairs. The anthers are introrse, the two cells, independent of each 

 other, and each opening by a longitudinal cleft, inserted towards 

 the middle of their height at the edges of a small rectangular con- 

 nective. In the female flowers, the perianth is nearly the same as in 

 the male, sometimes persistent round the base of the fruit, with three 

 or four valvate leaves. In the intervals of these are found stami- 

 nodes, equal or fewer in number, very small and glandular-shaped. 

 The gyntcceum is free, formed by an unilocular ovary, surmounted 

 by a large upright cylindi-ical or clavate style, traversed in its whole 



1 Wall, in Vhd. Mag. (1823), iii. 223 ; PI. 

 As. liai: iii. U, t. 126.— R. Br. in Beiw. PL 

 Jav. Rar. 245.— Griff. Natitl. iv. 320.— Endl. 

 Gen. n. 4698.— Meissn. Gen. 152 ; Comm. 109. 

 — Bl. Pitm/phia, iv. 36 ; Mus. Lugd.-Bat. i. 41. 

 — B. H. Gcii. 164, n. 31.— H. Bn. in Adansonia, 

 iii. 363 ; X. 262 in DC. Prodr. xvii. Q.— Gi/iwoe- 



phala Bl. Bijdr. iS3.—Gi/noeep/ialium Endl. 

 Gill. n. 1870.— Tbécul, in Atni. Se. Nat. sér. 3, 

 viii. 147. 



= It probably represents a corolla, outside 

 which is an epicalyx generally described as a 

 calyx. 



