730 PHANEROGAMIA. 



Involucel apparently wanting. Male flowers large : the tube of the 

 calyx (seen only after anthesis) turbinate, adnate to the ovary, 3 or 4 

 lines long; its limb very short, truncate, undivided, but repandly 

 undulate, sometimes appearing to be 4-5-lobed. Petals apparently 4 

 (perhaps 5), epigynous, 6 or 7 lines long, thickish, oblong, valvate in 

 aestivation, perhaps expanding in anthesis, but early deciduous. Sta<- 

 mens indefinite, as many as 60 or 70, distinct, inserted with the petals, 

 occupying more than one series; the filaments filiform and apparently 

 as long as the corolla, deciduous : anthers oblong, somewhat sagittate, 

 two-celled, fixed near the middle, incumbent. Ovary fleshy, turbi- 

 nate, fourteen-celled, or sometimes fifteen-celled, with complete but 

 thin dissepiments. Ovules solitary, suspended, anatropous, small, and 

 apparently sterile, or often wholly wanting. Stylopodimn conical, .large, 

 a line and a half long, tipped with a truncate and entire, but obscurely 

 14-1 b-radiate stigma. Female flowers and fruit (the latter noted by 

 Dr. Pickering as large) not collected. 



It is much to be regretted that fuller materials of this most inte- 

 resting plant were not preserved. In the collection there is only a 

 single compound leaf, and one ray of the compound umbel, bearing an 

 umbellet of nearly 30 flowers, which are past anthesis, the filaments 

 and a petal or two only remaining on some of them. The enlarging 

 and fleshy ovary has the appearance of being fructified, but seldom 

 contains even a sterile ovule. The scanty materials, therefore, barely 

 suffice to show that we have in this plant a truly polyandrous Ara- 

 liacea ! To this character the name chosen for the genus alludes. 



Plate 95.— Plerandra Pickeringii : a leaf and an ultimate ray of 

 the compound umbel, of the natural size. Fig. 1. Vertical section of 

 a flower. 2. A petal. 3, 4. Anthers. 5. Flower, from which the 

 petals and stamens have fallen. 6. Transverse section of the ovary. 

 — The details enlarged. 



11. BOTRYODENDRUM, Endl. 



Botryodendrum, Endl. Prodr. Fl. Ins. Norf. p. 62, & Gen. PI. p 795 j Hook f 

 Fl. N. Zeal p. 97. 



