22 



^'ATORAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



II. ASTRONIA SEEIES, 



The flowers of Astronia^ (fig. 30-34) are regular and hermaphrodite, 

 •with a concave cuplike receptacle, in the interior of which the inferior 

 ovary is adnate, above which it is prolonged. In the margin are 

 inserted the perianth and andrcecium. The calyx is gamosepalous 



Astrojiia macrophylla. 



Fig. 31. Fruit (}). 



Fig. 30. Long. sect, of flower. 



Fig. 32. Long. sect. 

 of fruit. 



with 4-8 teeth more or less deep. It not unfrequently divides into 

 unequal lobes,^ or separates as a single hood.' The petals, four or 

 five in number, are obtuse, disposed in contorted prefloration in the 

 bud. The stamens, in number double that of the petals, are but 

 shghtly unequal. The short and flat filament is inflexed at the 

 summit, which bears the anther; so that the face of the latter, 

 introrse at anthesis, is turned outwards in prefloration, when it rests 

 on the sides of the style and on the depressed summit of the ovary. 

 The anthers, short and laterally flat, have a dolabriform connective, 

 the base of which is blunt or prolonged in a short and thick projection, 

 and its convex margin, finally interior, bears the two narrow and 

 elongate cells, dehiscing by a longitudinal cleft. The ovary has from 

 two to five alternipetalous cells, surmounted by a cylindrical style 

 with stigmatiferous head nearly entire or divided into as many lobes 



' 'R\..Bijdr.imQ; Jiom (1831), 626; Smuphia, 

 i. 20, t. 6, 7.— DC. Frodr.m. 197.— Natjd. ^««. 

 Sc. Nat. ser. 3, xii. t. 10 ; xviii. 257. — Bndi. 

 Gen. n. 6267.— B. H. Gen. 771, n. 1^9.— H. Bn. 

 Payer Fam. Nat. 357i— Tm. Melast. 151.— 

 Hook. Fl. Ind. ii. 550. — Astronidiim A. Gray, 



Unit. St. Explor. Exp. Bot. i. 576, t. 12 A, B.^ 

 Naudinia Dcne, ex Tri. Seem. M. Vit. 86 (not 

 Pl. et LiND.). 



^ In the section Astronidium. 



' In the genus very wrongly distinguished hy 

 DE0.4ISNE under the name of Naudinia. 



