ONAGBARIACE^. 



471 



II. GAIJRA SERIES. 



Gaura ^ (fig. 440-442) most frequently has flowers with four parts ; 

 they are hermaphrodite. The receptacle has the form of a long 

 narrow gourd lodging the ovary in its largest portion and prolonged 

 above it in a narrow neck,'^ the upper opening "of which bears four 



Gaiira Lindheimeri. 



Fig. 440. Inflorescence. 



Fig. 441. Flower. 



Fig. 442. Long. sect, of flower. 



membranous valvate sepals,* and the same number of sessile petals, 

 imbricate or contorted in the bud. The stamens, inserted with the 

 perianth, are double the petals in number ; four superposed to them 

 and the other four alternate. The filaments are free, often declinate ; 

 the base is dilated internally to a squamiform process more or less 

 prominent, according to the species. The anthers, bilocular and in- 

 trorse, open by two longitudinal clefts. The ovary, inferior, is of 

 four cells, complete or incomplete, surmounted by a style the base of 

 which is surrounded by an epigynous disk with four lobes more or 

 less distinct, and its stigmatiferous summit is divided into four thick 

 and rather short lobes, superposed to the petals, and surrounded by a 

 ring which the upper margin of the stylary tube forms round their 



' L. Gen. n. 470.— J. Gen. 319. — Gjebtn. 

 Fruct. ii. 205, t. 127.— Lamk. Diet. ii. 614; 

 Suppl. ii. 711 ; III. t. 281.— DC. Prodr. iii. 44.— 

 Spaoh, N. Ann. Mm. iv. 375 ; Suit, d Buffon, 

 iv. 381.— Endl. Gen. n. 6134.— B.H. Gen. 792, 



li. 16. — H. Bn. Payer Fam. Nat. 374 ; Adansonia, 

 xii. 36. 



^ Straight or deflexed. 



^ Ordinarily caducous. 



