RHAMNACE&. 



63 



Colletia cruciata. 



is one ovule inserted at the base of the internal angle, with micro- 

 pyle ascending and at first directed downwards and inwards hut, 

 as in Bhamnus, ultimately becoming more or less decidedly lateral. 1 

 The fruit, accompanied at the base by a receptacular cupule, 2 is a 

 drupe, with thin mesocarp, finally dry, and formed of three cocci 

 which separate and open in two valves to 

 liberate each an albuminous seed, analogous 

 to that of the Buckthorns, plano-convex, with 

 a crustaceous testa. Colletia consists of shrubs 

 from the temperate and cool regions (espe- 

 cially the western) of South America, often 

 leafless or with very small leaves decussate, as 

 also the axillary branches, often thickened, 

 spinescent, vertically flattened and generally 

 nearly triangular. 3 The flowers, axillary and 

 solitary, or collected in few- flowered cymes, 

 are situated under these axillary branches. 

 A dozen species 4 are known. Formerly the 

 genus included a much larger number ; but it 

 has recently been dismembered of a number of secondary genera 

 which in other respects scarcely possessed the value of a section. 

 Sometimes it happens that, the fruit separating into cocci as in 

 Colletia, the disk is attached in the form of a cupule to the bottom of 

 the perianth, and that the opposite and spinous branches are articu- 

 late, as in Discaria, natives of South America, New Zealand, and 

 Australia ; or the floral receptacle, less deep and obconical, its 

 concavity lined with the disk, supports an open perianth with 

 independent folioles, as in Adolphia infesta, a subaphyllous 

 American shrub, with opposite and articulate spinous branches. 

 In Retanilla, Chilian and Peruvian shrubs, spinous and leafless, the 

 diminishing disk ascends the internal surface of the perianth, and 

 the fruit is a drupe with a 1-3-celled putamen. The same fruit is 

 observed in Talguenea and Trevoa, also from South America, but 



Fig. 57. Long. sect, of 

 flower (i). 



1 A double envelope. 



2 After floration, the perianth often detaches 

 itself circularly above the interior projection of 

 the disk and falls with the andrœcium. 



3 At least looked at in profile. 



4 H. B. K. Nov. Gen. et Spec. vii. 59. — Spreno. 



Syst. i. 825 (Condalia). — Hook, and Gill. Bot. 

 Misc. i. 151, t. 43, 44 ; Hi. 172.— Vent. Jard. 

 Cels. t. 92 — Lindl. Journ. Sort. Soc. v. 29, Ic. — 

 C. Gat, Fl. Chil. ii. 28 (part.).— A. Gray, Amer. 

 Expl. Exp. JBot. i. 276.— Wedd. Chi. Andin. ii. 

 183.— Bot. Mag. t. 5033.— Walp. Ann. vii. 603. 



