440 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



is surmounted by a style almost immediately divided into three or 

 four elongate lobes, in tbe form of thick, flat, fleshy strips, obtuse at 

 the summit, expanded, then reflexed on the top of the ovary ; all 

 their upper surface is covered with fine stigmatic papillae. In each 



of the three or four (com- 

 Psiioxijion mauntianwn. pj^g^g qj. gometimes rather 



incomplete) cells of the 

 ovary, there is an axile 

 and multiovulate placen- 

 ta. The fruit is a small 

 berry nearly globular, 

 accompanied at its base 

 by the calyx, and the 

 numerous seeds it encloses have a large fleshy embryo. The only 

 species ' of this genus is a shrub of the Mascarene Isles, the leaves 

 of which, analogous to those of some Bixacese of the Flacourtia 

 series, are alternate, entire, penninerved, thick, covered with fine 

 glandular punctuations ; the fiowers, unattractive, a little larger than 

 those of Grypteronia (fig. 416, 417), are grouped in the axil of the 

 leaves, in compound clusters of cymes. 



Fig. 416. Young female 

 flower. 



Fig. 417. Long. sect, of 

 young female flower. 



III. AMMANNIA SERIES. 



Ammannia ^ (fig. 418-424) has given its name to a small series of 

 this family, distinguished (somewhat artificially) by the smallness of 

 their flowers, concave receptacle, generally smooth externally, petals 

 none or scarcely perceptible and by their organs of vegetation. 

 They are small herbs, often aquatic, having ordinarily the habit of 

 Portulaca, or Gallitriche, or Myriophyllum, etc. In an indigenous 

 species commonly known as Peplis^ Portula* (fig. 418, 419) the 

 flowers are pentamerous or more generally hexamerous. The sub- 



1 p. mauritianum. — Fropiera mauritiaiia 

 Hook. f. loc. eit. 



2 HousT. ex L. Gen. n. 155. — Abans. Fam. des 

 Fl. ii. 234.— J. Gen. 333.— Lamk. Bict. i. 130 ; 

 Suppl. i. 328; III. t. 77.— DC. Mem. Genev. iii. 

 p. ii. 79 ; Prochr. iii. 77. — Endi. Gen. n. 6146.— 

 B. H. Om. 776, n. 1. — Baker, Fl. Maurit. 99. — 

 H. Bn. Payer Fam. Nat. 354 (incl. : Amanella 

 MiQ. Ameletia DC. Cornelia Arduin. C'lyptotkeca 



Bl. Didiplis Eapin. Ditheea Wight and Aen. 

 Middendorjia Tbautt. Nimmoia Wight, Peplis 

 L. Botala L. Sellowia Roth. Sufrenia Bei.lakd. 

 Tritheea Wight and Abn. WinterWa Speeng.). 



3 L. Gen. n. 446.— J. Gen. 333.— Schkuhr. 



Handb. t. 99. — Gjertn. Fniet. i. 237, t. 51. 



DC. Prodr. Hi. 76. — Endl. Gen. n. 6144. — B. H. 

 Gin. 776, n. 2.— H. Bn. Bull. Soe. Lmn. Par. 87. 



" L. Spec. 474.— DC. Prodr. iii. 77. 



