442 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 
usually male, through the more or less complete abortion of the 
gyneceum. Some half-hundred species' have been admitted in this 
genus, but the number should probably be reduced by half. They 
occur in all the tropical regions of the globe. 
VI. GYROCARPUS SERIES. 
Gyrocarpus’ has regular polygamous flowers. In the hermaphro- 
dite (the rarest of all) we find a deep cup- 
shaped receptacle, lodging the ovary in its con- 
cavity, while its edges bear the androceum and 
perianth. The latter consists of at most ten 
leaves, five external’ valvate, and five alternating 
with these, and similar in form, size, and con- 
sistency. But in certain flowers there are alto- 
gether but three or four of these leaves. The 
stamens are sometimes as numerous as the outer 
leaves, but are usually fewer in number (sterile 
in the female flowers), each with one or two 
elongated glands at the base, of variable form, 
and consisting of a slender exserted filament, 
and a swollen connective which bears on its 
edges or inner face two cells; each cell dehisces 
by the raising of a valve. The gyneceum, 
rudimentary in the male flower,‘ consists of a 
one-celled ovary containing a single descending 
anatropous ovule; this is attached near the top 
of the ovary, and its micropyle looks upwards 
and inwards. The terminal style is slender, 
with a more or less dilated stigmatiferous apex. 
The fruit (fig. 269) is a drupe with a thin meso- 
carp; itis surrounded by the receptacle, and the perianth, most of 
Gyrocarpus americanus. 
Fre. 269. 
Fruit. 
1, Spec., 35.—Scou. & THONN., Beskr., 199. 
—R. Br., Prodr, Nov.-Holl., 404.—NEES, in 
Pl. Preiss., ii, 619.—Hoox., Exot. FI., t. 167. 
Wien, Icon., t. 1847.—Brra. & F. MUELL., 
Fil. Austr., v. 308.—ScHLIL., in Linnea, xx. 
578.—WaLP., Ann., i. 574. 
2 Gyrocarpus Jace, Amer, 282, t. 178, 
fig. 80.— Gaur. Fruct., ii. 92, t. 97.-—R, 
brown, Prodr., 404.—BL., Nov. Fam. Expos., 
15.—Ners, Prog. Laur., 20; in Wall. Pl. 
Asiat. Rar., ii. 68; Syst., 699.—ENDL., Gen., 
n. 2068; Iconogr., t. 43.— Muztssn., Prodr., 
247.—B. H., Gen., 689, n. 14,—H. By., in 
Adansonia, v. 187. 
3? Two are already larger than the rest at 
anthesis, and these it is that become the wings, 
+ In which the receptacle is much shallower 
than in the flowers with a fertile gyneceum. 
