364 NATUBAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



with two collateral ovules in each cell. The branches are in part 

 transformed into spines, and the leaves are simple, linear, alternate, 

 or fasciculate. DiplopeUl>i has also a very different aspect. It consists 

 of Australian herbs, suffrutescent at the base, whose flowers are also 

 very nearly those of Koelreuteria ; but the glandular ovary is didy- 

 mous or trilobate, and the fruit is a coriaceous, depressed capsule, 

 bi- or tri-lobate, septicidal, divided at maturity into berries dehis- 

 cent by their internal angle. The E)'ithroj)hi/sas are also closely 

 allied to the preceding genera. They also have irregular flowers, 



Evithrophysa uiidiilatci. 



Fig. 391. Hermaphrodite flower {\). 



Fig. 392. Longitudinal section of flower. 



with four petals aud a more or less excentric ovary with bi-ovulate 

 cells. The petals are provided with a long claw lined in the upper 

 part by a petaloid appendage, more or less lobate and cut in fim- 

 briate tufts (fig. 391, 392). The receptacle has the shape of a cup 

 on whose edges the very pronounced waved disk is projected from one 

 side, so that the stipitate gynœceum is more or less excentric. The 

 fruit is vesiculate, almost like that of Kœlreuteria^ and the cells of 

 the ovary are also biovulate. The two species of Erithrophi/sa known 

 are, one from the Cape, the other from Madagascar, and they have 

 large flowers appearing before the imparijjinuate leaves. Cossignia 

 (fig. 393-398), consisting of shrubs from Zanzibar, Madagascar, and 

 the Mascarine islands, has nearly all the characters of Eriihrophysa ; 



