MALVACE^. 73 



Plate 129. 



MALACHRA, L. 



Flores in capitiilum pedimculatiim plurifiomm, involucro 

 3-pleiophyllo cinctum, dispositi. Involucellum proprium 

 nullum. Caetera fere Pavonias. — HerbsB pilis pungentibus 

 hispidae. 



Malachra, Linn. Gen. 1266. Jacq. Ic. Rar. t. 548, 549. Cav. Diss. 

 2. t. 33. f. 2 (excl reliq.). DC. Prodr. 1. p. 441. excl. spec. 3, 5, 

 10, &14. Adr. Juss. in St. Hil. Fl. Bras.l.p.216. Endl. Gen. 

 5291. Ach. Rich. Fl. Cub. 1. p. 117. 



Calyx not involucellate, jBve-cleft, persistent ; the seg- 

 ments three-nerved, valvate in asstivation. Petals obovate, 

 oblique, convolute in aestivation, hypogynous, their claws 

 united with the base of the stamineal column. Stamens 

 definite (about 20), monadelphous in a simple hypogynous 

 column, which is shorter than the corolla and naked, often 

 five-toothed, at the apex : filaments short, all emitted singly 

 from just below the apex of the column : anthers reniform, 

 one-celled. Ovaries 5, situated opposite the petals, more or 

 less united in a ring around a central axis : styles united 

 into one, which is ten-cleft at the summit : stigmas 10, 

 capitate. Ovule solitary in each carpel, peritropous-ascend- 

 ing from the inner angle near the base of the cell ; the 

 micropyle inferior. 



Fruit pentacoccous ; the achenia-like one-seeded carpels 

 obovate-wedge-shaped, very obtuse and pointless, falling 

 away separately from a slender axis, dehiscent at the base 

 or along the ventral suture from below upwards. Seed 

 conformed to the cell, obovate-triangular, erect, slightly ex- 

 cised at the hilum ; the testa crustaceous. Embryo large, 

 somewhat inciu-ved in the scanty albumen : cotyledons broad 

 and foliaceous, cordate, plicate in the middle and chrysaloid- 



infolded : radicle inferior. 

 6 



