306 



XLVII. GERANIACE^. 



membranous, campanulate, or. forming a compressed truncate sub-bilabiate cup. 

 Petals 4, claws united at the base, limb rhomboid. Stamens 4, alternate with the 

 petals, exserted ; filaments subulate, glabrous ; anthers 2-celled, versatile, oblong, 

 didymous, incumbent, introrse, dehiscence longitudinal. Ovary rudimentary or 0, 

 Fl. $ : Flowers in a fleshy spike ; bracts as in the $ , deciduous, the two lower 

 connate. Calyx and corolla 0. Ovaries 8-12, coherent, adherent to the 

 base of the bracts, 4-celled ; style ; stigma capitate, sub-bilobed ; ovules solitary, 

 erect, anatropous. Ripe carpels 4-celled, connate, and forming a fleshy ovoid- 

 conical fruit ; endocarp coriaceous. Seeds erect, oblong, straight ; testa membranous ; 

 albumen 0. Embryo conformable to the seed; cotyledons fleshy, oblong, compressed; 

 radicle short, near the hilum. 



ONLY GENUS. 

 Batis. 



The affiaities of Batis are very obscure ; in habit it resembles C/ienopodiecs, but the structure of 

 its flower appears to indicate a closer affinity with Meaum,uriacecB, Tamariscinem, and with some Zygo- 

 phyUca, through Tribuhis. It inhabits the seashores of tropical America. 



XLVII. GERANIACEJE. 

 (Geeania, Jussieu. — Geranioideje, Ventenat. — GERANiACEiE, D.C.) 



