474 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



America. The leaves are opposite, petiolate, oval, dentate or nearly 

 entire, glabrous, hairy, penninerved. The flowers (small, white, or 



Circtea liitetiana 



Fig. 445. Diagram. 



Fig. 443. Inflorescence. Fig. 444 Flower (4). 



Fig. 446. Long. sect, 

 of flower (j) . 



pink) are in terminal, simple or ramified clusters, with or without 

 bracts. Six species l are distinguished. 



Diplandra lopezioides, 2 a Mexican shrub, has in its tetramerous 

 ovary the uniovulate cells of Circœa, and the ovule directed the 

 same * but the valvate sepals are four in number, also the petals, 

 somewhat unequal, and of the two stamens, one is anterior, the 

 other posterior. The fruit is a loculicidal capsule. 



Lopczia^ (fig. 447-452) has flowers much more irregular. They 

 mio-ht be defined as monandrous Diplandra* or at least with only 

 one fertile stamen. The superior calyx is generally formed of four 

 valvate sepals, and the corolla of four alternate dissimilar petals. 5 

 The posterior stamen is the fertile one; its anther is bilocular, 

 introrse. 6 The anterior is transformed into a petal. The inferior 

 ovary has four oppositipetalous and multiovulate cells. The fruit 



i Wight, III. t. 101.*— Boyle, III. t. 43.— K. 

 Fl. Berol. i. 168.— Curt. Fl. Lond. iii. t. 3.— 

 Torr. et Gb. Fl. N.-Aiaer. i, 527.— Boiss. FL 

 Or. ii. 752.— Gben. et Godb. Fl. de Fr. i. 585. 

 — Walp. Rep. ii. 96. 



a Hook, and Abx. Beech. Yoy. Bot. 291, t. 60. 

 — Endl. Gen. n. 6128.— B. H. Gen. 792.-H. 

 I'.s. Adansonia, xii. 37. 



3 Oav. loon. i. 12, t. 18. — J. Aim. Mus. ii. 317, 

 t. 30, fig. 30.— DC. Prodi: iii. 62.— Sfach, iSwi*. 



à Buffon, iv. 414.— Enpl. Gen. n. 6129.— B. H. 

 Gen. 791, n. 13.— Ii. Bn. Payer Tarn. Nat. 375 ; 

 Adansonia, xii. 37. — Pisaura Bonato, Monogr, 

 (1793) c. icon, (ex Endl.). — Je/ilia Hort. (ex. 

 B. H. foc. cit.). 



■' With multiovulate ovarian cells. 



s There are occasionally flowers with five 

 petals and two petaloid staminodes. 



6 The pollen is that of Fuchsia. 



