TER E BINT H A OEM. 



286 



Chlanujdocarij a Thùmsnniana. 



remarkably enough, with most of the characters of the latter, has 

 a concave receptacle, and, accordingly, a frnit half inserted in this 

 receptacle (fig. 334), whilst the perigynous, 

 gamophyllus perianth, persistent and accres- 

 cent, covers it like a long cap lengthened into a 

 tube. The two species of Chlamydocarija known 

 are from tropical Africa ; the female flowers are 

 united in spikes or capitules. In lodes be- 

 longing to tropical Asia, Oceania and Africa, the 

 flowers are arranged in compound cymes. The 

 flowers have an inferior perianth, accompanied 

 or not by an exterior ealicule. The fruit is 

 superior, with a seed whose embryo has folia- 

 ceous cotyledons surrounded by a fleshy albu- 

 men. They consist of sarmentaceous or climb- 

 ing shrubs, provided with tendrils, and having 

 opposite leaves. 



Following the Phijtocrenccv has been placed 

 with some doubt Cardioptcris^ whose name 

 comes from the marginal wings accompanying 

 the dry fruit, and which probably is quite as 

 much allied to Mappia by the hermaphrodite 

 flowers provided with a double perianth, that 

 is to say, a true calyx and an imbricate gamo- 

 petalous corolla, and an antli'oceum of five 



stamens borne by the corolla and alternate with its divisions. The 

 ovary only contains one ovule, which recalls that of Pennantia. The 

 only Cardiopteris known is a perennial, herbaceous or suflErutescent, 

 climbing plant, with milky sap, inhabiting tropical Asia and Oceania, 



Fig. 334. Longiludiuul 

 section of iiuit. 



This family, as we have described it, is manifestly a family " by 

 concatenation," and there is at flrst sight little resemblance between 

 the first and last types, but if it is correct to say, after seeing them 

 together, that there is not the slightest afiinity between a Phytocrene 

 and a Spondias or Btirsera, it is not less true that many species of Map- 

 pia, for example, have flowers constituted very nearly like those 

 of Pht/tocreiie, and that between the 3fappia and the Co7-//nocarpus, 

 inseparable, nevertheless from certain species of Jnacardium, there 



