260 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



formerly confounded) in having an ovary with, two or three cells, sur- 

 mounted by an equal number of distant styles, swollen at the summit 

 into a stigmatiferous head. The ovary cells each enclose an ovule, 

 directed like that of Spondias', and the fruit is a drupe with thick stone 

 whose two or three cells each contain an exalbuminous seed. The 

 two or three ^ known species of Sderocarya inhabit the warm regions 

 of tropical and southern Africa, and have the flowers arranged in un- 

 ramifled spikes, on the axis of which are arranged in gradation small 

 bi- or tri-florous glomerules. 



II. BTJRSEEA SERIES. 



The most complete known type of the Bursera series (Fr. Gom- 

 mart)^ is a plant of the Mascarene Islands, named by several 

 authors B. oMusifoHa^. Its flowers (fig. 265-268) are regtdar and 



Bursera [Marignia) olttiaifoUa. 



Fig. 265. Hermaphrodite 

 flower {\). 



Fig. 266. Diagram. 



Fig. 268. Longitudinal Fig. 267. 

 eection of flower. Flower, the 



perianth removed. 



polygamous. In those which are hermaphrodite we find a gamo- 

 sepalous calyx, having generally five divisions whose prefloration is 

 valvate or slightly imbricate. The petals are the same in number, 

 valvate in the bud. The androceum is formed of two verticels of 



1 GuiLUEM., A. Rich, et Pbrk. Fl. 

 Tent.i. 152, t. 41 !^Spondias). — Sond. in ii«?!«a, 

 xxiii. 26 {Sclerocarpa). — Hakv. et Sokd. Fl. 

 Cap. i. 524— Olit. Fl. trap. Afr. i. 449.— W alp. 

 Eep. y. 418 ; Ann. ii. 287 ; vii. 648. 



2 L. Gen. n. 440.— J. Gen. S72.~LAms.. Diet. 

 ii. 767 ; Suppl. ii. 812 ; III. t. 256.— Jacq. Stirp. 

 Amer. 94, t. 66. — K. in Ann. Sc. Nat. ser. 1, ii. 



350.- -DC. Frodr. ii. 77.— Tuep. in Diet. Sc. Nat. 

 Atl. t. 264, 265.— Spach, Suit & Bvffon, ii. 239. 

 — Endi. Qen. n. 6933.— B. H. Gen. 324, n. 6.— 

 Baker, Fl. Maurit. 43. — Mahcb. in Adansonia, 

 viii. 28, 64 (incl. : Dammara Gjertn. Elaphrium 

 Jacq. Idea Al'Bl. Marignia Commers. Frotium 



BUKM.). 



2 Lamk. Diet. ii. 768, n. 3. 



