86 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 
On its horizontally (fig. 57) or obliquely (fig. 58) truncate rim are 
inserted the perianth and androceum, while the gyneceum springs 
from the very bottom. The calyx consists of five unequal sepals 
quincuncially imbricated in the bud. The corolla consists of as 
many alternately imbricated petals, which may be equal, or nearly 
so, to one another, or unequal, the vexillary petal becoming very 
small or even disappearing entirely. In certain of the species the 
petals are reduced to equal or unequal slender subulate tongues of 
Sclerolobium (Cosymbe) Peppigianum. 
Fie. 58. 
Flower (2). 
Fie. 59. 
Longitudinal section of flower. 
nearly the same form as the filaments of the stamens.’ These are 
ten in number—five superposed to the sepals, and five shorter to the 
petals. Hach consists of a free, sometimes hairy filament, more or 
less folded on itself in the bud near its apex, which bears an introrse 
two-celled anther of longitudinal dehiscence. The gyneceum consists 
of a shortly stipitate ovary,’ surmounted by a terminal style which 
is tapering, truncate or slightly dilated at its stigmatiferous apex ; in 
the angle of the ovary towards the vexillary petal are several de- 
1 This is the character of Sclerolobium proper, 
as it was at first known to VoeEL. The spread- 
ing membranous petals, resembling those of 
Leptolobium and Tachigalia, characterize a 
distinct section, called Cosymbe by TuLAsNE 
(Arch. Mus., iv. 168), who is wrong in referring 
it to the genus Tachigalia, for in this section we 
find neither the elliptical mouth to the recep- 
tacle nor the lateral insertion of the gynzeceum 
of this last-mentioned genus. Chrysostachys ? 
glabra Papp. (exs., n. 2837) and Leptolobium ? 
luteum Mart. (Herb. Fl. Bras., n. 1148) belong 
to this section. 
? Often covered with hairs analogous to those 
of the disk and the lower part of the staminal 
filaments. The direction of the foot of the ovary 
is continuous with that of the pedicels (figs. 57, 
59). 
