428 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 
anthers superposed to the petals, containing no pollen in their 
anthers, which are transformed into a large glandular mass. The 
gynzceum, formed of a single carpel,’ consists of a free ovary sur- 
mounted by a nearly central style,? whose apex is dilated into a 
stigmatiferous head. Within the single cell of the ovary is seen a 
parietal placenta, superposed to a petal (fig. 242), and giving in- 
sertion near the top to a single descending anatropous ovule, whose 
micropyle looks upwards and towards the placenta.* The fruit is a 
berry,’ the base of which is surrounded by the persistent receptacle 
and perianth ; the enclosed seed contains within its coats’ a large 
exalbuminous embryo, with fleshy concavo-convex cotyledons, and a 
straight superior radicle.© The Ceylon Cinnamon-tree is an aromatic 
tree, whose opposite petiolate exstipulate leaves have a thick entire 
blade, penniveined, three-ribbed at the base. Its flowers form 
ramified racemes’ of biparous cymes at the ends of the branches. 
Each flower is axillary to a bract, and its pedicel bears two opposite 
lateral fertile bracts (fig. 240). 
In certain species of Cinnamomum the leaves are alternate. This 
is the case with the Camphor-plant of Japan (fig. 244), which has 
been considered the type of a distinct genus, under the name 
Camphora’® oficinarum? In this the leaf-buds are protected by rigid 
imbricated scales, and the perianth, separating circularly at its base 
during the ripening of the fruit, leaves the base of the latter 
1 Murssnez (Prodr., 2) holds that the gyn- 
zceum of the Lawracee is primitively composed 
of three carpellary leaves :—“ Pistils 2, 3, inti- 
mately connate into 1; ovary formed of 2, 3, 
valvately connate . .. .; placentas 2, 3, parietal 
rib-like, except the fertile one.” Observations 
on its development have overthrown this 
theory. 
2 It is traversed by a longitudinal groove on 
the placentary side, continued in many Lauracee 
up to the dilated stigmatiferous end, which it 
notches. This groove ends in a rather broad 
pit near the top of the ovary, where the pla- 
centa ends a little above the insertion of the 
ovule. 
3 It has two coats. 
4 The walls are thin, not very fleshy, and dry 
up early. Many other Lawracee have these 
stoneless fruits, with a thin scarcely fleshy 
pericarp, and often described as bacea sicca or 
easucca (dry or juiceless berries). 
5 These are thin; three layers can, however, 
be distinguished—viz., a soft cellular external 
coat, whitish in the fresh seed; a thin brittle 
testa, and a tender brown membrane. Here, 
as in many other Lauraceae, the teguments 
are often spotted or “chiné” with dark 
purple. 
§ The radicle cannot be seen from the outside 
of the embryo. The two cotyledons descend a 
good way below the insertion on the tigellum, 
each forming a half sheath, thus completely en- 
closing the radicle, and even prolonged below its 
tip. The whole of the embryo is sprinkled with 
reservoirs of essential oil. 
7 Their divisions are opposite, decussate, like 
those of the stem and the leaves. 
8 Nuts, in Wall. Pl. Asiat. Rar., ii. 61, 72; 
Syst., 87.—ENDL., Gien., u. 2024. 
°C. Baun., Pin., 500.—Laurus camphorifera 
Kempr., Amen., '770.—L. Camphora L., Mat. 
Med., 107.—Persea Camphora SPRENG., Syst., 
ii, 268.— Cinnamomum Camphora Nuezs & 
Exsrrm., Med. Ph. Bot. ii. 480; Pl, Off. 
t. 127.—Muissn., Prodr., n. 44, ‘ 
a 
