PENTANDRIA— DIGYNIA. Umbellate. S3 



Stam. Filaments 5, equal or unequal, according as the petals 

 are so, thread-shaped or awl-sliaped, simple, spreading. 

 Anthers roundish or oblong, incumbent, of 2 close pa- 

 rallel lobes, without any appendage, and 2 cells opening 

 lengthwise. 



Pistil. Germen inferior, usually simple, rarely a double 

 globe ; more or less compressed, eitiier laterally or trans- 

 versely ; the surface either even, or striated longitudinally, 

 smooth, hairy, or prickly. Styles 2, each proceeding from 

 the inner side of a large, tumid, ovate, globular, pyrami- 

 dal, or depressed, permanent base, of a glandular ap- 

 pearance, very seldom wanting ; the styles themselves are 

 usually cylindrical, short and erect in the flower, but sub- 

 sequently elongated, either spreading or strongly reflexed, 

 forming a pair of hooks to the fi-uit ; in a few genei'a they 

 are at every period long and capillary, in some degree 

 spreading, almost invariably permanent, and hardened as 

 the fruit ripens. Stigmas either simple, obtuse, or capi- 

 tate, never divided. 



Floral Receptacle, or DisJc, a glandular ring, under the 

 tumid bases of the styles, and mostly united therewith, 

 but differing in substance, and often in duration, some- 

 times dilated into a thin undulated margin or ruffle, in 

 general somewhat enlarged as the fruit ripens, sometimes 

 withering, sometimes entirely wanting, finally separated 

 into two pai'ts, one of which aecompanies each seed. 



Fruit either ovate, roundish, elliptical, cj'lindrical, or ob- 

 long, tumid and solid, or thin and chaffy; compressed 

 more or less, either laterally, that is, contrary to the por- 

 tions of the Jloral receptacle ; or transversely, parallel 

 thereto ; and finally separating into 2 naked seeds, each 

 suspended by one branch of a capillary, upright, divided 

 receptacle. 



Seeds each of the shape of half the fruit ; their outer skin 

 various in substance, form, and surface, giving the cha- 

 racter o^\X\& fruit ; the inner thin, membranous and uni- 

 form; each seed crowned with one half of the jf?o?-a/ recep- 

 tacle, as well as with a part of the calyx, if either or both 

 be present, and usually with one of the slijles ; i\\Q\v junc- 

 ture, or point of union, flat, or finally concave, various in 

 breadth in those which are compressed laterally ; nearly 

 as broad as the seeds in tliose which are compressed 

 transversely; their ma7-gins either simple, or bordered 

 with a membranous wing; their outer surface more or 



VOL. u. D 



