COMBBETACE^E. 



271 



Malayan archipelago. i The leaves are entire, widely dentate or 

 sublobate, alternate, petiolate, without stipules. The flowers, at the 

 summit of a common peduncle, form a sort of capitule or short spike 



Nyssa bijlora. 



Fig. 243. Hermaphrodite 

 flower (f). 



Fig. 242. Male flower (f). 



Fig. 244. Long. sect, of 

 hermaphrodite flower. 



on which they are disposed in small groups (probably glomerules), 

 accompanied by lateral bracteoles sometimes forming small involucres. 

 The females, less numerous at the summit of the common peduncle, 

 may even be solitary.^ 



III? ALANGIUM SERIES. 



The flowers of .ikwg'mm ^ (fig. 245-252) are regular and herma- 

 phrodite. The concave receptacle, like that of Combretum or Nyssa, 



' According to Bentham and Hookee, N. 

 sessiliflora HooE. P. and Thoms., a Himalayan 

 species, is very analogous to Ceratostachya (Bl. 

 mjdr. 644 ;— Mia. Fl. Ind.-Bat. i. p. i. 839), a 

 Javanese plant, itself prohahly identical with 

 AgathisantAes (Bl. he. cit. ; — Miq. loc. eit, 838),. 

 Oamptotheea, of Tihet, appears very near the 

 preceding types, differing chiefly in its valvate 

 corolla (imbricate in Ceratostaehys) and in its 

 anthers with four cellules pendent from a dila- 

 tation of the connective, and opening irregularly 

 on the side of the filament. 



2 Here also we provisionally place JDavidia, a 

 beautiful tree of Tibet, the authentic specimens 

 of which, unfortunately, some time since disap- 

 peared from the herbarium of the Museum, 

 which has prevented us from giving a figure of 

 it. The flowers are collected in 1- or 2-sexual 

 capitules ; the males represented simply by 



stamens, free on the surface of a globular recep- 

 tacle. The female flower, occupying, when 

 present, not the summit, but the side of the 

 upper portion of the receptacle, is composed of 

 an inferior ovary, with numerous uniovulate 

 cells, surmounted by an epigynous calyx, within 

 which may be found some short stamens with 

 fertile or sterile anthers. The ovules in each cell 

 are solitary and descending, with exterior mi- 

 cropyle. D. involucrata has alternate leaves and 

 two large white foliaceous bracts under the 

 inflorescence. 



' Lamk. Dici.i. 174; Suppl.i. 366. — Corhea, 

 Ann. Mus. x. 161. — DO. Proifr. iii. 203. — 

 Spaoh, Suit, a Buffon, xiii. 260. — Endl. 6m. n. 

 6096.— H. Bn. Adansmia, v. 193.— B. H. (?««. 

 949, n, 1. — Angolam Adans. Fmn. des Fl. ii. SiS^ 

 — Angolamia Soop. Introd. n. 280. 



