NYCTAGINACEZ. 9 
acylinder more or less dilated above, where it divides into five valvate 
lobes. More internally are five stamens, alternating with the divisions 
of the perianth, exserted, united at the base, with introrse anthers, 
and a gynæceum resembling that of MZ/radilis. The fruit, surrounded 
by the inferior portion of the 
perianth which persists, is indu- Pisonia discolor. 
rated dry and monospermous ; and 
the seed which it contains en- 
closes under its very thin coats a 
straight embryo with inferior 
radicle and a not very voluminous 
albumen. In the male flowers the 
gynæceum remains inconsiderable i 
© é E Fia. 14. Fie, 15. 
or sterile, or occasionally dis- Flower (+). ue to 
appears. In the female flowers of flower. 
the stamens are either less nume- 
rous or much shorter, and sometimes even wholly absent, included, 
with sterile anthers, or antherless. But the species, to the number 
of thirty, included in the genus Pisonia, are subject to an indefinite 
number of variations. The perianth is 
variable in form, according to the Pisonia aculeata, 
species and sex. In the female flowers 
it is often cylindrical or clavate. In the 
male it is frequently shorter ovoid, ob- 
ovoid or campanulate. The divisions, 
sometimes not very deep, are either 
slightly reduplicate, or oftener indupli- 


Fig. 16, Fie. 17. 
cate in the bud. The androceum is wd tates Porn ee See vey 
generally the seat of deduplications,  indusium (>). of fruit. 
which, instead of five stamens, make as 
many as six, seven, eight, or still more, from twelve to thirty, or even, 
in Cephalotomandra and Vieillardia from thirty to forty. The ovary 
has always the same organization, but the stigmatiferous extremity 

1 ©. fragrans Karst. et Trt, F1. gran., 23 serted. The greater part of the Pisonias more- 
(ex WaLp., Ann, Vv. 721). The perianth is over, have the fruit induviate. 
urceolate-subeampanulate in the male flowers, 2 Ap. Br. et Gr., in Bull. Soc. Bot. de Fr., 
The stamens are included in these, while in the viii. 375; in Ann. Se, Nat., sér. 5, 338. The 
female flowers they are sterile, and slightly ex-  calyx is subcampanulite. 
