310 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



There are Myrtles wtich frequently have as many ovarian cells as 

 petals and which, consequently, would represent the most complete 

 types of the genus. But at the same time their sepals are often 

 large and foliaceous. These have been distinguished under the 

 name of Galycolpus •j'^ they are all American. In those which have 

 been named Imma^ the seminal coats are membranous. Many have 

 tetramerous flowers ^ and some also a caducous calyx. Instead of 

 being solitary, the flowers may be in cymes 3-7-florous or formed of 

 an indefinite number of flowers, biparous, or triparous.* Thus con- 

 stituted,^ this genus includes some sixty ^ species,^ arborescent or 

 oftener frutescent, glabrous or tomentose, natives of nearly all the 

 warm regions of the globe. Beside this genus are placed a great 

 number of others scarcely differing from it and most frequently 

 separated from it only by characters quite artificial and mostly of 

 very little value. Among those which have been proposed, we shall 

 distinguish only the following, the number of which might perhaps 

 be stUl farther reduced without inconvenience. 



Bhodomyrtus, inhabiting Oceania, chiefly the Indian Archipelago, 

 consists of Myrtles in which the ovules, numerous in each cell, are 

 isolated in a great number of cellules bounded by false partitions 

 formed between them by the hypertrophiate placentae. Decaspermum, 

 native of the same countries, has also nearly all the characters of 

 Myrtles and ovarian cells divided into uniovulate cellules by false 

 partitions ; but the latter are vertical, and the ovules, few in number 

 (two to four) which they separate from each other, are descending. 

 Pvmenta is also very near the Myrtles, and the cells, two in number, 

 likewise enclose a limited number (one to three or four) of descending 

 ovules, inserted very near the summit, and with micropyle finally 

 lateral ; but there are no false partitions. Pimenta is from tropical 



^ Bekq, Zinneea, xxvii. 378. — B. H. Gen. 713, ^ Double have been admitted. 



n. 47. ? H. B. K. Nov. Gen. et Spec. vi. 129, t. 369. 



2 A. Gray, Unit. St. Expl. Mxped. Bot. i. 635, — Sibth. Fl. Grcec. t. 475.— A. S. H. Fl. Bras. 

 t. 66. — Myrceugenia Bekg, Linncea, xxtu. 131 ; Mer. ii. 292, t. 140, 141. — Miq. Fl. Ind.-Bat. i. 

 XXX. 669. p. i. 476.— Berg, Mart. Fl. Bras. Myrt. 210, t. 



3 WHte or pink. 25 {Myrceugenia) ; 351, t. 32 (Myrnmithes) ; 

 ■• As happens in Pseudocaryophyllus (Bees, 411, t. 13 [Calycolpus) ; 413, t. 44,46; 420, t. 46 



Linncea, xxvii. 415 ; xxix. 256). {Blepharocalyx) ; 429, t. 47 A [Pseudocaryophyl- 



5 Sect. 4 (B. H.) : 1. XTgni (Tcbcz.), flowers Zm).- Thw. Enum. PI. Zeyl. 114.— Benth. Fl. 



Bolitaiy oftener 4-merou3 ; — 2. Eumyrtm [Myr- Austral, iii. 273. — Hook. f. Eandb. N.-Zeal. Fl. 



tus Beeg), flowers 1-3-ms, oftener 5-merous ;— 73. — Br. et Gr. Ann. Sc. Nat. e&. 6, iii. 212.— 



S.JOeandt-ia (A. Gray);- 4. Zuma (A. Gray), Qms^B. Fl. Brit. TT.-Ind. 237.— GKSN.etGoDS.. 



flowers 1-7-ms, oftener 4-merous ; cotyledons Fl. de Fr. i. 602. — ^Walp. Ann. iv. 832. 

 flat or sometimes oontortuplioate. 



