334 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



is formed of from four to eight sepals, coloured like tlie receptacle,'' 

 and like it coriaceous, thick, valvate, persistent, and of the same 

 number of alternate petals, inserted in the intervals of the sepals, 

 membranous, corrugate, imbricate in the bud. The stamens are very 



Kg. 335. Ijong. sect, of flower. 



Fig. 334. Floriferous branch (|). 



Fig. 336. Fruit (J). 



numerous and inserted at various levels on the internal surface of 

 the tube formed by the receptacle above the ovary. Each is formed 

 of a slender filament, at first incurved, and of a small bilocular 

 introrse versatile anther dehiscing by two longitudinal clefts.^ The 

 inferior ovary is surmounted by a style which, at first flexuose, 

 enlarged to a cone at the base, terminates in a head covered with 

 stigmatic papillae. In the ovary are two series of superposed cells ; * 



' Eed or pale yellow, 



' The pollen is " ovoid, approaching the 

 sphere; threefold with papiUae" (H. Mohl, 

 Ann. Sc. Nat. s&. 2, iii. 332). 



3 Organic investigation has revfealed (Payer, 

 loc. cit. 467) that the carpels belonging to the 



two verticils have at first the same direction, 

 corresponding to that of the placentae originally 

 in their internal angle. If they become exte- 

 rior in the carpels of the upper verticil, it is 

 because the ovary has been reversed on the style 

 (the stigmatiferous portion of which is aborted) 



