RHAMNACEyE. 175 



Plate 166. 



SAGERETIA, Bro7ign. 



Calyx 5-fidus, tubo urceolato. Petala obovata calyce bre- 

 viora. Ovarium disco crasso cupulaeformi subinclusum, li- 

 berum, 3-loculare, Driipa baccata, 3-pyrena. Semina ex- 

 sulca. Cotyledones planae. — Frutices ramis virgatis, foliis 

 suboppositis laxe penniiierviis, floribus spicatis. 



Sageretia, Brongn. in Ann. Sci. Nat. 10. p. 359. t. 13. f. 2. Torr. &, 

 Gray, Fl. N. Am. 1. p. 263. Endl. Gen. 5720. 



Calyx five-cleft, with an urceolate or hemispherical tube ; 

 the lobes ovate, acute, carinate in the middle of the upper 

 side, valvate in aestivation. Disk thick and fleshy, cup- 

 shaped, filling the tube of the calyx to which it adheres, 

 closely surrounding the ovary but free from it. Petals 5, 

 inserted on the margin of the disk, alternate with the lobes 

 of the calyx and shorter than they, obovate, often emargi- 

 nate, more or less unguiculate, involute around the stamens in 

 aestivation, cucullate or concave, deciduous. Stamens o, in- 

 serted with the petals and opposite them, about their length : 

 filaments subulate : anthers ovate, two-celled, fixed near 

 the base, introrse, the cells opening longitudinally. Ovary 

 ovate, nearly immersed in the disk, free, three-celled : style 

 very short and thick, three-grooved : stigmas 3, depressed- 

 capitate. Ovule solitary in each cell, erect from its base, 

 anatropous, the raphe next the axis. 



Fruit a globose baccate drupe, tripyrenous ; the pyrenae 

 coriaceous, smooth and even, not grooved, obcordate, inde- 

 hiscent, filled with the seed. Embryo in the axis of thin 

 fleshy albumen : cotyledons flat and plane : radicle in- 

 ferior. 



Shrubs with slender and virgate branches, spinescent 

 branchlets, and mostly opposite oblong or lanceolate and ser- 



