72 NATURAL HISTORY OP PLANTS. 



prsefloration. Tlie sepals 1, 2 and 3 (the two last often exterior) 

 are but little developed, greenish, and foliaceous. The sepals 4 and 

 5, on the contrary, covered ia the bnd, much larger, unsymmetrical, 

 coloured and petaloid, are thrown out on each side of the expanded 

 flowers and constitute thus what are termed wings. The corolla is 

 not less irregular. It is formed of five very unequal petals, 

 imbricated in the bud so that the two posterior cover the anterior 

 which is generally much larger than the others. This takes the 

 name of keel, because of its form ; it is concave boat-shaped helnjiet- 

 shaped or resembling a hood ; the apex is entire or bi- or tri- 

 lobed and often bears towards the end a dorsal crest lobed or divided 

 in various ways. The posterior petals are small and narrow often 

 reduced to small scales or simple or bi-lobed tongues ; sometimes 

 they are altogether wanting as are also the lateral ones still more 

 frequently. When these latter exist (which is rarely the case), they 

 are almost always still smaller than the posterior ones which they 

 cover in the young bud and with which they may remain united to 

 a variable length. The androceum is formed of eight stamens placed 

 four on each side of the flower. The fllaments are generally mona- 

 delphous and united to the petals for a variable distance in their 

 lower part, the sheath thus formed being cleft according to the 

 length of the posterior side of the flower. Higher tip, the filaments 

 form for a variable distance two bundles, after which each becomes 

 free and terminates in an introrse anther, with two more or less 

 complete cells, dehiscing by an apical opening of varied shape, 

 single or more or less deduplicate. The hairs, variable in number, 

 often cover the summit, but especially the base of the anther. ^ The 

 gynseceum is free ; accompanied at the base by an insignificant 

 glandular disk, often irregular. It is composed of an ovary, com- 

 pressed upon the sides and surmounted by a style whose stigmatife- 

 rous apex inclines towards sepal 2, bending and dilating on a level 

 with and above its papillose surface into two or four lobes of very 

 varied form and size.^ The ovary is in two cells, anterior and 



t. 233.— Lem. et Done. Tr. Q-eii. 329 (incl. : great num'ber of longitudinal folds; in water 



Madiera DC. Brachytropis DC. Chamabuxm DC. spherical, with narrow bands which c-.ntain an 



Bpirhizanthcs Bl. Isolophus Spach, Phylace umhUious {Gomesperma compactum, twelve 



Nob. Fsyehanthm DC. Salomonia Lour. Semeio- hands ; Mundtia spinosa, twelve or thirteen ; 



cardium Hassk. Senega DC. Tricholoplms Spach. Monnina xalapensis, fifteen ; Folygala Chamce- 



1 The pollen, h\^e Folygalacea is according buxus, sixteen; F. Myrti folia, twenty-two, also 



to H. MoHL (in Ami. So. Nat. ser. 2, iii. 326), twenty-one and twenty -three." 



" spherical, barrel-shaped or cylindrical, with a ^ The posterior lobe is almost always mucU 



