XLIV. MALPIGHIACEyE. 



1. MALPIGHTA SERIES. 



We shall study first in this series not the Malpighia, which have 

 given the name to it, as well as to the entire family, but a type dis- 

 tinguished by the independence of its carpels, as well as of the parts 

 of all its floral vertioels. This may be, for example, a Pterandra^ 

 (fig. 427, 428), whose flowers are hermaphrodite, regular and pen- 



Pterandra pyroidea. 



Fig. 427. Longitudinal section of flower (i) 



Fig. 428. Fruit (f). 



tamerous. Their receptacle surbased, and in form of a patulous 

 cupula, supports five sepals quincuncially imbricate. On the exte- 

 rior face two lateral glands are generally seen, here but slightly 

 developed, sometimes even hardly visible, but having, in many other 

 genera of this family, a very large development. The five petals, 

 alternate with the sepals, are provided with a short claw and a large 

 membranous imbricate limb. The androceum is composed. of two 



1 A. Juss. in A. S. S. M. Bras. Mer. iii. 72 

 (part.) ; Monogr. des Malpighiacees (1843), 62, 

 t.- 6. — Enpl. Gen. n. 5589. — Gkiseb, I,inncea, 



xiii. 288. — B. H. Cfen. 253, n. 9. — Ecphymacalyx 

 PoHi,. in Flora (1826), 183 (ex Endl.). 



