298 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 
locular. Above they remain more or less separated from each other, 
so that at this height the axis of the ovary is occupied by a single ca- 
vity. Upon the faces of the placentas, and in a very variable extent of 
their lower part,’ are seen an indefinite number of anatropous ovules, 
disposed in two or several series. The fruit is a capsule, with three 
or five incomplete cells having a very peculiar mode of dehiscence. 
The endocarp, membranous or like parchment, divides into valves, 
bearing upon the middle of their internal face seminiferous parti- 
tions, at the same time detaching itself from the more exterior 
layers of the pericarp, the valves of which alternate with its own. 
The reniform or spiral seeds contain under their coats,” the exterior 
covered with woody hairs of variable length, a fleshy albumen, in 
the axis of which is found a greenish incurved embryo, with cylin- 
dro-conical radicle, and oval foliaceous cotyledons. 
Cochlospermum consists of trees, shrubs, or perennial herbs, with 
tuberous rhizome,’ filled with a yellow or reddish juice. The leaves 
are alternate, palmatifid, or digitate. Their flowers are disposed at 
the summit of the branches, and in the axils of the upper leaves in 
more or less compound racemes. A dozen species‘ are distinguished 
in this genus, natives of all the tropical regions of the world. 
In certain species of Cochlospermum the falciform partitions of the 
ovary are much elevated, so that below the base of the style there 
is but a very small cavity corresponding with the axis of the ovary. 
In one or two species of the Western regions of the two Americas, 
distinguished under the name of Amoreuxia, but which, accord- 
ing to us, only constitute a series in the genus Cochlospermum, 

1 The line according to which the insertion of 
the ovules ceases above, is often more or less 
oblique from above downwards, and from within 
outwards. 
2 We have seen (Adansonia, x. 260) that 
under the superficial coat, covered with hairs, the 
hard and dusky testa bears at one of its ex- 
tremities (that which corresponds to the apex of 
the cotyledons) a cireular opening, made as with 
a punch, and which would be wide open, if the 
interior membrane, elsewhere soft and pale, did 
not thicken at this point into a sort of brown 
cork, which is applied like a plug upon the 
internal orifice. We have observed the same 
peculiarity in Amoreuvia. 
# Which must certainly be considered as a 
woody stem, short, thick-set, and subterraneous, 
so that the aerial herbaceous axes would only be 
annual branches. 
4 L., Syst., 517 (Bombax),— Burm., Ind., 
145 (Bombax). — Cav., Dess., v. 297, t. 157 
(Bombax),— SonnER., Voy., ii. 285, t. 133 
(Bombax).—A. 8. H., Pl. Us. Bras., t. 57; Fl. 
Bras. Mer., i. 296.—CambeEss., in Mém. Mus., 
xvi, 402.—Wiaent, in Hook, Bot. Mise. Suppl. 
t. 18.—Wiaentr & ARN., Prodr,, i. 87.—Roxz., 
F1. Ind., ii. 169.—K., Syn. Pl. Æquin., iii. 214, 
—H. B. K., Nov. Gen. et Spec., vii. 233,— 
GUILLEM. & PERR., Fl. Sen. Tent., i. t. 21.— 
Ourv., F1. Trop. Afr. i. 112.—F. Mvertt., 
Fragm., i. 71.—BENTH., Fl. Austral., i. 105.— 
Watp., Ann., i. 115; i1.176; vii. 222. 
5 Sess. & Moc., Fl. Mexic, ined. (ex DC., 
Prodr., ii. 638).—EnDL., Gen,,n. 6403 (Rosacea). 
—Pu., in Hook. Lond. Journ., vi. 140, 306, t. 1. 
—A. Gray, Fl. Wright., ii. t. 12—H. Bn,, in 
Adansonia, x. 259.—Watvr., Ann., iv. 340. 
