410 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 
VIII. BALANITES SERIES. 
In this small group, formed of the single genus Balanites’ (figs. 
460-463), the flowers are regular and hermaphrodite, with a sur- 
based receptacle. The calyx is formed of five sepals, disposed in 
Balanites egyptiaca. 

Fia, 460. 
Floriferous branch. 
Tre. 462. 
Long. sect. of flower, 
the bud in quincuncial præfloration ;° and the corolla, of five alter- 
nate petals, imbricated when young.* The stamens are ten in num- 
ber, five longer alternate, and five superposed to 
the petals ; they are formed of a two-celled introrse 
anther, dehiscing by two longitudinal clefts at- 
tached at the back to a free subulate filament. This 
is inserted in one of the ten inferior hollows of the 
hypogynous disk in the form of a thick festoon.' 
The gynæceum is superior; it is composed of an 
ovary with five oppositipetalous cells, surmounted 
by a conical style with stigmatiferous apex divided 
into five small lobes, often but little distinct. In the 
Balanites egyptiaca. 

Fie, 463. 
Dry fruit. 

1 Des. Fl. d'Eg. n. 77, t. 28, fig. 1—DC., 
Prodr., i. 708.—ARN., in Ann. Sc, Nat. sér. 
2, iii. 246.—ENDr., Gen., n. 5498.—B. H., 
Gen., 314, n. 26.—H. BN., in Adansonia, ii. 
381, t. 10, fig. 9, 10; x. 316. 
2 Their edges, levelled as it were, are how- 
ever not very large. 
5 Glabrous or velvety, especially outwardly, 
entire, or hollowed at apex. 
4 It has ten prominent lobes above, and ten 
others alternate, prominent below ; it is in the 
sinuosities separating these latter from each other 
at the bottom of an equal number of small 
pits that the stamens are inserted. 
