MYRTACE/E. 



331 



Bcrtholletia excelsa. 



In the preceding genera, the sepals, often six in number, are 

 distinct and more or less imbricate in young age. On the contrary, 

 in Bertholletia, a fine tree of 

 tropical America, the calyx is 

 primarily a globular valvate 

 gamophyllous sac, enveloping 

 the rest of the flower and, at 

 the time of antbesis, dividing 

 from top to bottom ordinarily 

 into two segments. The an- 

 drœcium is that of Lecythis, 

 and the fruit opens at the 

 summit by a small opercu- 

 lum. The triangular seeds 

 (fig. 327, 328), which it con- 

 tains in small number, enclose, 

 under their resisting, rugose coats, a thick fleshy and undivided 

 embryo. 



Fig. 327. Seed. 



Fig. 328. Long 

 of seed. 



sect. 



V. NAPOLEONA SERIES. 



Napoleona 1 (fig. 329-333) has regular and hermaphrodite flowers, 

 with concave receptacle. Its margin bears a calyx of five sepals, 3 

 valvate in the bud, and a gamopetalous corolla with five lobes 

 alternating with the sepals, folded in a peculiar manner in the bud. 

 It is lined with two concentric petaloid collarettes, which have been 

 compared to the disks of Passiflora, adherent at the base to the 

 corolla and falling with it. The exterior is formed of more slender 

 coloured filaments ; the interior, of flattened and petaloid tongues, at 

 first incurved. The androecium is also united at the base with the 

 corolla ; it is formed of five bundles of stamens, superposed to the 

 sepals. Each bundle generally contains four stamens, the two exterior 

 alone being fertile, formed of a filament surmounted by a unilocular 



1 Pal.-Beauv. Fl. Owar.ii. 29, t. 78.— Timr. 

 Diet. Sc. Nat. Atl. t. 66.— Spach, Suit, à Buffon, 

 ix. 427. — A. Juss. Ann. So. Nat. sér. 3, ii. 227, 

 t . 4.— Endl. Gen. n. 4263.— B. H. Gen. 723, n. 

 71.— H. Bn. Bayer Fain. Nat. 370; Bull. Soc. 

 Linn. Par. OS. — M. Mast. Journ. Linn. Soc. x. 

 492. — Miehs, Trans. Linn. Soe. ser. 2, 1, t. 1, 2, 

 3 A. — Belvisia Desvx. Jour». Bot. iv. 130. — R. 

 Bk. Trans. Linn. Sue. xiii. 222 ; Misc. Works (ed. 



Benn.) i. 388. 



2 They bear, on each margin, a sessile gland 

 resembling that of certain Euphorbiaceœ. 



3 They are traversed by longitudinal ridges 

 which touch in the bud but afterwards separate 

 without ceasing to be parallel, in consequence 

 of the development of membranous furrows 

 interposed between them. 



