10 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



formed each of a unilocular ovary lodged in the cupular receptacle, 

 so that the base is applied outwards to the internal wall of the cup, 

 and the summit directed obliquely inwards. From this poiut springs 

 the style, rising vertically, without adhering to the other styles, which 

 have not the same length in all the carpels, each terminating in a 

 small stigmatiferous head. The fruit is formed of from five to ten 

 capsules which, remain iacrusted in the concavity of the receptacle. 

 On the outside persist the calyx and epicalyx developing more 

 or less unequal spines. In each capsule, dehiscing by an upper 

 cleft, is seen an oblique seed the coats covering a fleshy embryo, 

 with plano-convex cotyledons and cylindrical radicle. The only 

 known species of this genus * is an annual herb growing in the 

 sandy regions of North and East Africa. The stems, finally 

 ligneous at the base, covered, like the rest of the plant, with an 

 abundant woolly down, separate into branches which spread upon 

 the ground, and are covered with alternate petiolate pinnatisect or 

 lobate leaves, accompanied by one or two small lateral stipules (?). 

 The flowers are axillary or nearly so, solitary and pedunculate. 

 When the seeds are ripe, they germinate in the induviate fruit 

 which they attach to the ground, it being often found at the 

 base of a plant beariag the fruit of the following generation. 



On looking at the very singular habit and dull corolla of Neurada, 

 we can understand its having been generally placed in a family very 

 distant from the present.^ But when we observe an inseparable genus 

 Grielum^ only distinguished by its calyx without epicalyx, and its 

 much developed contorted petals, in every way resembling those of 

 Geranium, we cannot but admit that the Neuradeoe are Bieberstdniece 

 in which the carpels are inserted in a concave floral axis instead of 

 on a more or less prominent receptacle, i. e., of the perigynous 

 Geraniums. The three known species of Grielum * are natives of the 

 sandy and salt plains of South Africa. 



' N. procumbens L. Spec. 631. — Fonsic. JEg.- niacem. 



Arab. 90.— Wight, Icon. t. 1596.— Hook. lom. ^ L. Gen. n. 587.- GriERTN. Fruct. i. 188 t. 



t. 840. — Tribulastrum africanum, Lippi. 36.— DC. Prodi: ii. 649.— Enul. O-en. n. 64*02! 



2 That of EosaceaB, -with which they have — B. H. Gen. 626 n. 62. 



nothing in common but their perigynous cha- < Burm. Afr. t. 34, 53.— Thcnb. Fl. Cap. 509. 



racter. Buiimann {Geran. 1) and Sweet — Bdrch. Fby. i. 286.— Haby. et Sond. w! e«^! 



{Geran. ii. t. 171), and later Planchon in Voi/. ii. 304, 

 Linden, 47, admitted their afl^ties with Gera- 



