COMBRETACEJE. 267 



woody elongate fruit bearing at its margin the traces of the two 

 lateral bracteoles of the flower, borne on the sides of the receptacle, 

 contains one linear seed the embryo of which has convolute cotyle- 

 dons. Laguncularia racemosa, a shrub inhabiting, like Lumnitzera, 

 the brackish waters of the shore alike in western Africa and tropical 

 America, has opposite leaves and spikes of polygamous flowers, the 

 inferior and obconical ovary of which also bears upon its margin the 

 lateral bracteoles raised nearly to the height of the persistent calyx, 

 and five imbricate petals. The stamens are also to the number of ten 

 with short filaments and cordate anthers, and are inserted at the level 

 of an epigynous disk which crowns the ovary and surrounds the 

 base of a short style stigmatiferous and bilobed at summit. In the 

 ovarian cavity is found a placenta nearly apical from which depend 

 two sessile ovules. The fruit, dry and coriaceous, obpyramidal and 

 inwardly compressed, encloses a single seed the embryo of which has 

 also convolute cotyledons. Macropteranthes, Australian shrubs, 

 owe their name to the presence, on the sides of their ovary and fruit, 

 of two large lateral bracteoles, raised and flattened inwardly, in the 

 form of wings. The flower is in other respects that of Laguncularia, 

 except that the receptacle contracts much less above the ovary, and 

 that the latter contains from ten to sixteen ovules suspended by 

 slender funicles of very unequal length. The leaves are opposite or 

 fasciculate, and the flowers geminate on axillary peduncles. 



Guiera and Calycopteris, shrubs with opposite and downy leaves, 

 the one from tropical Africa, the other from India, have pentamerous 

 flowers, in construction very near those of Combretum. In the former 

 they are collected in a sort of capitule surrounded by four large 

 foliaceous decussate bracts forming an involucre. In the latter they 

 are disposed in large ramified clusters. But Guiera has long ex- 

 panded petals inserted in the hollows of five sepals persistent but 

 not accrescent to the summit of a long siliquiform curved very villose 

 fruit ; whilst Calycopteris has no petals, and its fruit, short and 

 pentagonal, is surmounted by accrescent sepals in five membranous 

 and veined plates. In both these genera the embryo has convolute 

 cotyledons. 



Terminalia has given its name to a distinct tribe of this family 

 ( Terminaliece), the principal characters of which were thought to be, 

 alternate leaves, apetalous flowers, and an embryo with convolute 

 cotyledons. Besides Terminalia (fig. 235-240), it comprised many 



