106 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



regular, hermaphrodite pentamerous flowers. The concave receptacle,i 

 in the form of a reversed cone, bears on its margin the five divisions 

 of the calyx, quincuntially imbricate, then open or even reflexed 

 in anthesis. In the throat are inserted with and superposed to 



Linostoma decandrum. 



Fig. 72. Flower (f). Fig. 73. Long. sect, of flower. 



them five stamens each formed of a free filament and an exserted 

 and introrse anther, bilocular and dehiscing by two longitudinal 

 clefts. Pive other stamens, alternate with and shorter than the 

 preceding, of the same organisation, constitute a second verticil; 

 and with the ten parts of the andrcecium alternate an equal number 

 of glands, also inserted in the throat, elongate, nearly petaloid, 

 glabrous, obtuse^ at the summit, long contracted towards the base. 

 The gynsecium is quite at the bottom of the receptacle, accompanied 

 at the base by ten very small hypogynous glands each of which 

 corresponds to a prolongation of one of the stamens. The ovary is 

 free, nearly sessile, covered with hairs, surmounted by a terminal 

 slender style, the exserted summit of which is dilated to a stigmati- 

 ferous head. In the single cell of the ovary is seen a parietal 

 placenta bearing, a little below the summit, a single descending 

 anatropous ovule, with micropyle superior and exterior. The fruit 

 is a naked drupe (?), finally dry, enclosing one descending seed, 

 with thick fleshy embryo and short superior radicle, and accom- 

 panied by an unabundant fleshy albumen. Idnostoma, of which 

 only one or two Indian^ species are known, consists of glabrous 



' Such ia probably tbe signification of the 

 tube which, in generic descriptions, we shall 

 often refer to the perianth, following most 

 authors, the question being still undecided. 

 On these coats are delineated more or less 



clearly the linear descending threads of the 

 stamiual filaments, partly concealed by hairs. 



^ Or more or less crenate. 



' Gmpp. Calc. Joum. of Nat. Mist. iv. 234, 

 not~WAijV. Ann. i. 587. 



