SKUTCH: FLOWERS OF THE AGUACATILLO 



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General. The dull yellowish flowers are borne in loose panicles which spring, 

 on long peduncles, from the axils of the full-grown new leaves. Each blossom 

 (Figs. 5 and 6), at full expansion, is about a centimeter in diameter. It consists 

 of three very small roundish sepals, three alternating and much longer, nar- 

 rowly ovate petals, an outer whorl of six stamens and an inner whorl of three, 

 which are slightly longer and have narrower anthers, and alternate with the 

 petals. Six small, roundish nectar-glands are in pairs at the bases of the three 

 antesepalon stamens of the outer whorl. Three much larger, sagittate glands 











Fig. 1. Aguacatillo trees in March. Basin of El General, Costa Rica, altitude 850 meters. 



alternate with the stamens of the inner whorl and hence lie above the petals. 

 The flower has a single, simple pistil with a solitary ovule, unbranched style 

 and oblique stigma. All parts of the flower are densely covered with a short,, 

 fine pubescence, except the glands, the anthers, and the pistil. 



Each flower opens twice — on consecutive days. During the first opening 

 (Fig. 5), the stamens lie against the petals, which are widely spread and lie 

 all in one plane, and the anthers remain tightly closed. The pistil, however,, 

 stands up prominently in the center of the flower, with exposed and receptive 

 stigma. Functionally the flower, during its first anthesis, is purely pistillate. 

 After the termination of the first anthesis, the petals close tightly together 

 again (Fig, 3) ; and during the period of closure the filaments of the stamens. 



