RUBIACE^. 



301 



ovatiflora, a small Australian tree, has polygamo-dicecious flowers 

 which approach very nearly to those of the reduced types of Ouettarda. 

 The corolla is valvate or 



slightly imbricate. In the Guettarda eiiipUca. 



male flower, the sterile ovary 

 is surmounted by a simple 

 subulate and papillose style. 

 The ovary becomes an elon- 

 gate drupe with a 2-4-celled 

 putamen. We can consider 

 this plant as forming only 

 a section of the genus 

 Guettarda; its inflorescences 

 resemble umbels sometimes 

 superposed. 



Canthium (fig.- 290-293), to which we annex as a section the old 

 genus Vangueria, has given name to a separate tribe (Vangueriew). 



Canthium (Vangueria) edule. 



Fig. 289. Inflorescence. 



Fig. 290. Flower (j). 



Fig. 291. Diagram. 



Fig. 292. Long. sect, of flower. 



The flower is often 4, 5-merous, with an inferior ovary of two cells, in 

 each of which is a descending ovule with dorsal raphe, an umbilic 

 more or less thick and micropyle interior and superior. The calyx 

 is entire or with four or five teeth or lobes, and is early detached at 

 the base. The corolla, valvate, 4, 5-lobed, bears, at a variable 

 height of its tube, deflexed hairs, often arranged in a very clearly 

 defined ring. The stamens have an introrse anther with connective 

 often thick, apiculate and coloured. The style is generally surmounted 

 by a stigmatiferous cap in form like an extinguisher or mushroom. 



