OCHNACEJi. 353 



summit of the short gynobase; the lobes connected only at their 

 insertion around the base of the columnar five-grooved style, laterally 

 compressed, smooth, one-ovuled. Stigma truncate, radiately some- 

 what five-lobed. Ovule linear, arising from the base of the cell out- 

 side of the thick, ascending protuberance that partly fills the cavity, 

 around which it is curved nearly into the shape of a horse-shoe : it is 

 anatropous, with a ventral rhaphe ; the micropyle next the hilum. 

 Fruit of 5 baccate drupes, somewhat compressed, borne on the margin 

 of the enlarged and depressed, disk-shaped, fleshy gynobase; the 

 sarcocarp very thin; the endocarp coriaceous, coherent with the 

 edges of the internal projection, so that a transverse section at the 

 middle shows four small cells, two of them occupied by the seed, the 

 lateral ones empty. Seed linear, conformed to the cell, coiled nearly 

 into a ring; its testa membranaceous. Albumen none. Embryo 

 conformed to the seed, nearly annular : the thin cotyledons narrowly 

 linear ; the slender radicle centripetal-inferior. 



Plate 42. — Brackenridgea ottida : a branch, of the natural size, 

 in flower and in fruit. Fig. 1. Stipules, with part of a young leaf. 

 2. Unopened flower. 3. Expanded flower. 4, 5. Stamens. 6. Pistil, 

 with the gynobase and persistent filaments. 7. Vertical section of the 

 same, showing the curved ovules in place, &c. 8. Immature fruit, 

 with the persistent calyx. 9. Mature fruit, with the calyx. 10. Ver- 

 tical section of one of the drupes, showing the seed. 11. Trans- 

 verse section of the same. 12. The embryo detached. — The details 

 variously enlarged. 



