12C LETTER XXXVII. 



formation. The edge of the cup is divided into ten 

 lohcs, of which five are flat, spreading, glandular, and 

 two-horned {fg. '2. a. a. and fig. 3. a. a.), and five 

 scale-like, inflected, and fringed with hairs (Jig. S.h.b.). 

 From the very bottom of the cup rises a cluster of 

 stamens, of unequal lengths, each having a joint in the 

 middle {Jig. 4. a.) ; these stamens rise up one by one, 

 or in very small numbers, protrude themselves beyond 

 the mouth of the cup, to discharge their pollen, and 

 then shrivel up. From their centre springs a long, 

 green stalk {Jig. 2. h. and Jig. 3. c), curved down- 

 wards by the weight of a roundish ovary that grows 

 upon its summit. There is a joint in the stalk of the 

 ovary of the same nature as that in the stamens. 



The ovary (fig. 6. & 5.), is three-cornered, has 

 a double short wing at each angle, and contains one 

 pendulous ovule in each cell ; two stigmas, or rather 

 a two-lobed stigma, rises from each lobe of the ovary. 

 The seed-vessel is of the same form as the ovary, and 

 separates with elasticity, when ripe, into three cases, 

 or cocci, out of each of which falls a single seed. The 

 seeds are slightly downy, pale straw-coloured, faintly 

 spotted with purple, and unequally six-sided {^g. 5.) ; 

 next the hilum, they have a white fleshy protuberance, 

 called a caruncula, and they contain an embryo with 

 two short cotyledons, and a long slender radicle lying 

 in fleshy albumen. 



What now is the real nature of the parts we have 

 been examining ? It used to be thought that the green 

 cup was a calyx, and that the stamens were of the 

 same nature, exactlv, as other stamens. But it was 



