Fternandra (Eihessia) cordata.^ 



MELASTOMAOE^. ' 23 



as there are ovarian cells. In the internal angle of the latter, near 

 the base, is a sahent placenta, conical or nearly So, directed Obliquely 

 upwards and outwards, covered with anatropous ovules. The fruit is 

 a capsule surrounded by the coriaceous receptacle, 

 ' Astronia maerophyiia. which finally bursts and roleasBS the fruit proper. 

 The nervures of the receptacle remain after the decay 

 of" the interposed parenchyma, and then form an 

 open iietwork. The seeds are small, numerous, 

 narrow, with basilar hilum and salient raphe. As- 

 tronia comprises trees and shrubs, glabrous or downy, 

 natives of Malaya and 

 Islands of the Pacific. 

 A dozen species are 

 distinguished.^ The 

 leaves are opposite, 

 large, coriaceous, en- 

 tire, trinerved at the 

 base. The flowers' are 

 in terminal compound 

 clusters of cymes. 



The fundamental 

 organization of the 

 Seed. Lon|. sect, flower in Ptemaudra 

 (fig. 35-38)is the same 

 as in Astronia. It has also a sac-like receptacle of little depth, 

 hemispherical or nearly so, on the straight margin of which are 

 inserted the calyx and petals closely contorted in prefloration, oval 

 or lanceolate, pointed or obtuse at the summit, and the stamens, 

 all nearly equal and formed each of a short subulate filament and 

 an oblong anther obtuse at both ends, with a connective not basally 

 prolonged below the cells, sometimes without appendage, sometimes 

 furnished with a short posterior spur. The top of the ovary is 

 more or less depressed into a hollow which receives the anthers in 

 the bud and which may be covered with a thin layer of glandular 

 tissue with light radiating crests corresponding to the intervals of 



Fig. 33. Fig. 34. 



Fig. 35. Young 

 bud covered with 

 calyx. 



Fig. 36. Bud 

 with calyx de- 

 tached. 



' Figures from Icones Selesserianm (v. t. 5). 

 2 Humph. Serb. Amb. iv. 134, t. 69 {Pharma- 

 eum). — Mia. Fl. Ind.-Bat. i. p. 1, 566. — Seem. 



m. Tit. 85.— Walp. Rep. ii. 188 ; Ann. ii. 612 ; 

 iv. 797, 809. 

 ' White or pink, sometimes large. 



