Tin: ilORSE-CHESNUT TRIBE. 99 



into bright orange-yellow at the base, and covered 

 with soft hairs ; two of the petals stand at the back of 

 the flower, and two at its sides, overlapping the former 

 a good deal, and exceeding them considerably in size ; 

 a fifth petal is wanting from the front, and hence this 

 flower is both miequal and uns}Tnmetrical in its corolla. 

 This irregularity occurs also in every part, except the 

 ovary. We have already seen that the lobes of the 

 calyx are unequal ; the disk has also been described as 

 one-sided ; and you will next find that the stamens are 

 unsymmetrical, with regard to the surrounding parts. 

 Instead of being five or ten, and so corresponding 

 with the calyx, or four or eight, which would agree 

 with the petals, you will find only seven, which sym- 

 metrizes with neither ; they are curved downwards 

 towards the front of the flower, their filaments are 

 covered ^^-ith long hairs (fig. 2.), which protect the 

 style, and they terminate in oblong, red, hairy anthers, 

 tipped with a reddish point {fig- 5.). The pistil is 

 covered with hairs, and bent forwards and downwards 

 in the direction of the stamens. It has a simple style, 

 the point of which, where the stigma is, has no hairs, 

 and a fleshy two or three celled ovary {fig. 3.), the 

 sides of which are deeply channelled by the pressure 

 of the filaments. In each cell you will find two ovules, 

 one of which rises up, while the other hangs down, 

 from a projecting horizontal placenta (Jig. 4.). 



The fruit of this plant becomes an unequal-sided, 

 leathery, muricated seed-vessel {fig. (j.), opening by 

 two or three valves, and containing one large roundish 

 seed in each cell. The seeds {fig. 7-) have a hard, 



H 2 



