148 



NATURAL UtSTORY OF PLANTS. 



Mulberries and are buried in the cavities hollowed in the com- 

 mon receptacle; so much so that the fruit which succeeds is 



Sroussonetia papyrifera. 



Fig. 106. Female inflorescence. Fig. 104. Male flower (f). Fig. 106. Female flowers (^). 



completely encased in this receptacle accrescent after fecundation. 

 The style is single or formed of two very unequal branches. They 

 are American trees. Beside Madura is placed Caturus, having the 



same inflorescence, with 



Brousmnetiarapyrifera. ^j^^ female floWCrS of 



JBroussonetia, but the 

 fruit, sessile on the com- 

 mon receptacle, is sur- 

 rounded by the persist- 

 ent urceolate calyx. The 

 male flowers are gene- 

 rally trimerous ; but in 

 one species, of which a 

 genus, AUceanthus, has 

 been made, they are 

 tetramerous and tetran- 

 drous. They are un- 

 armed trees and shrubs 

 of tropical Asia and 

 Oceania. With the fun- 

 damental organisation of 

 flowers, androecium and gynsecium of the preceding genera, Pleco- 

 spermum and Cardiogyne are distinguished in that the inflorescence of 

 both sexes has a spherical receptacle on which the glomerules are 



Fig. 103. Male in- 

 florescence. 



Fig. 107. Fructiferous branch. 



