BIXACEX. 281 
which at a variable height a prolongation of the disk is found, some- 
times very marked. Round this is inserted an indefinite number 
of stamens, and more externally five sepals much imbricated, the 
Ryania speciosa. 

Fie. 310. Fie, 312. 
Flower. Longitudinal section of flower. 
three interior even convoluted in the bud. The unilocular ovary has 
three, four, or five parietal pluriovulate placentas, and the style is 
divided above, to a variable distance, in as many branches, stigma- 
tiferous at the apex. The woody or suberous fruit 
contains seeds provided with a fleshy aril. Ryania speciosa. 
It is by these characters that the small subseries 
of Ryaniee, constituted by a single American genus, 
is distinguished from that of ÆZwsamydeæ, formed of 
the five preceding genera. 
Scolopia, generally ranged among the Flacourtiee 
proper, belongs, according to us, to a third subseries, 
very nearly related to that in which Casearia is found, 
for it has the same fundamental or- 
ganization. The receptacle has the 
form of a cup or patera, the edges 
and upper surface bearing the pe- 
rianth and androceum; these are 
therefore really perigynous. The 
sepals, from three to six or seven in Fra. 311. Fia. 313. 
number, have often in their intervals Diagram. Gynæceum (7). 
a like number of petals of nearly 
the same size and colour. The anthers are often surmounted by 
a linear prolongation of the connective. Among the Scolopicw 

