RHIZOPHOR.iCE.K. 



295 



Macarisia, but a little more complicated. The petals, four or five 

 in number, are spathulate and deeply laciuiate, and the stamens are 

 from fifteen to thirty in number. In the ovary, constricted at the 



Cassipourea i lliptica. 



Fig. 272. Flower. 



Fig. 273. Long. sect, of flower. 



Cassipourea elliptica. 



base, are found three or four biovulate cells ; and the fruit, spherical 

 or ovoid, thick and more or less fleshy, finally opens along the par- 

 titions. The albuminous seeds are more or 

 less angular but not winged. In the old world 

 Cassipourea has its analogues in three genera 

 scarcely distinct. They are: Dactylopetalum, 

 native of tropical western Africa and Mada- 

 gascar, having pentamerous flowers with ten 

 or fifteen stamens, and an ovary with two or 

 three incomplete cells ; Blepharistemma, an 

 Indian shrub, having the tetramerous and 

 diplostemonous flower of Gassipourrn, with an 

 ovary of three biovulate cells ; and Weihea, 

 inhabiting Ceylon and the same regions as 

 Vactylojpetalum, having the androccium of 

 Cassipourea, but an ovary inserted at the bottom of the receptacle 

 by a wide base, more or less adnate, and flowers, solitary or grouped 

 in cymes more or less compound, accompanied by two connate 

 bracteoles forming a sort of calicule. 



Fig. 274. Flower with 

 perianth removed. 



IV. ANISOPHYLLEA SERIES. 



In this genus, which has been referred to very different families, 1 

 and which owes its name 2 to the singular peculiarity presented by 



1 The Hamamelidece, Cwwniem, etc. — H. Bn. Payer Turn. Kat. 361.— Oliv. Trans. 



- Anisophylka R. Br. Trans. Hart. Soc. v. 446. Linn. Hoc. xxiii. 46U.— B. H. Gen. 68o, n. 16.— 



