580 PHANEROGAM I A. 



celled; the axile placentse occupying the whole length of the cell, 

 two-lobed ; the divergent lobes each bearing a dense row of ascending, 

 anatropous, compressed, and upwardly winged ovules. Styles 2, 

 filiform, equalling the filaments and of the same colour, somewhat 

 united at the base, deciduous: stigmas terminal, simple, obtuse or 

 subcapitate. Capsule linear-oblong, often curved, an inch or less in 

 length, terete, or obscurely compressed contrary to the dissepiment, 

 two-grooved, not ribbed, minutely apiculate, two-celled, septicidally 

 two-valved from the apex ; the valves coriaceous, at length separating 

 from the bipartible placenta. Seeds numerous in each cell, 2 lines 

 long, flat, oblong, upwardly imbricated; the testa membranaceous, 

 reticulated-cellular, loose, extended especially above into a broad 

 wing much larger than the nucleus, which is oblique, as respects the 

 axis of the wing. Embryo nearly the length of the fleshy albumen, 

 and occupying its axis. Cotyledons oval, flat, nearly foliaceous, 

 longer than the inferior radicle. 



This is evidently a very close congener of Geissois racemosa, LabilL, 

 and it may prove to be no more than a form of that species. But 

 the leaves are all trifoliolate ; the flowers are brightly coloured and 

 showy ; the ovary glabrous ; the capsule is not compressed nor ribbed 

 as in Labillardiere's figure ; and the stamens, in all the flowers I have 

 examined, are more than ten, the number assigned by Labillardiere 

 to the New Caledonian species. Ten is an anomalous number for a 

 flower with a tetraphyllous calyx, and requires confirmation. In a 

 coloured drawing of the present species, made from the recent plant 

 by the late Mr. Agate, the equally anomalous number of nine stamens 

 is given to each flower, but I have found none with less than twelve 

 in the dried specimens. The seeds show no traces of the gummy 

 matter mentioned by Labillardiere. — The genus is rightly placed by 

 Endlicher next to Belangera. 



Plate 86. — Geissois ternata : in flower and fruit, of the natural 

 size. Fig. 1. Transverse section of a flower-bud. 2. Expanded 

 flower. 3. Anthers. 4. Pistil and disk. 5. Vertical section of the 

 same. 6. An ovule. 7. Transverse section of a capsule. 8. Dehis- 

 cent capsule. 9. A seed. 10. The same, with the nucleus divided 

 to show the embryo. 11. Transverse section through the embryo. — 

 The details variously magnified. 



