Begonia .] 
BEGONIACEJi. 
129 
segments, the latter sometimes absent. Stamens many, the filaments 
free or joined in a column ; anthers ligulate, basifixed. Ovary inferior, 
3-celled; placentas simple or forked, axile, rarely parietal; ovules 
numerous ; styles three, forked or multifid, the branches often twisted. 
Fruit usually a triquetrous capsule, with unequal wings ; but the wings 
in our plant quite absent. — Herbs or shrubs, with fleshy usually ob- 
lique leaves and cymose flowers. Distrib. Eound the world in the 
tropics, mostly American. Species 330. 
1. B. aptera, JEtoxb . FI. Ind. iii. 650. A branched fleshy under- 
shrub, 3-4 feet high. Leaves distinctly petioled, oblong, very oblique, 
acute, 4-6 inches long, simple, repand, thin, fleshy, bright metallic 
green ; stipules large, lanceolate, caducous. Flowers in lax bisexual 
peduncled cymes from the axils of the leaves; bracts opposite, lanceo- 
late-navicular, caducous ; pedicels short, erect. Sepals round, reddish, 
^ in. broad. Petals 2, much narrower, or absent. Stamens free ; 
strap-shaped anthers twice as long as the filaments. Styles short, 
thick, with 2-3 papillose forks. Fruit oblong, under an inch long, 
terete and wingless, three-celled with forked placentas. Meziera 
salaziensis, Gaudich. Atl. Bon. t. 32 ; A. DC. Prod. xv. 407. 
Mauritius, in thick forests of Quartier Militaire and Nouvelle Decouverte. 
Also Bourbon, Timor, Philippines. In the Seychelles in the damp forests of 
Mahe, and other islands, a variety is common with broader and less oblique some- 
times subequal leaves reaching nearly a foot broad. Oseille marron , (Maur.) Oseille 
des forets (Seyc.) 
B. mascariensis, Bojer, Hort. Maur. 271, 1 know only by an imperfect specimen 
of old date sent by Mr. Horne, who believes it to be acaulescent. It has a cordate- 
palmatifid naked leaf, equal at the base, half a foot broad, with seven lanceolate- 
deltoid lobes reaching halfway down to the top of the petiole, and a laxly 
corymbose monoicous inflorescence half a foot broad, on a long peduncle, with 
abundant pairs of small spreading obovate bracts from the nodes, in. pedicels, 
an apetalous male flower with two round sepals £ inch broad, obtuse ligulate anthers 
twice as long as the free filaments, and a broad-oblong capsule half an inch deep, 
with one narrow wing, and another one triangular half an inch broad, with 
bipartite placentas, and a style as long as the three spreading corrugated sub- 
ulate stigmatic lobes. It was gathered by Bojer in Mauritius in the deep forests 
of Quartier Militaire, and is said by him to be also an inhabitant of 
Bourbon. 
Order LI. CUCURBIT ACE.®. 
Flowers monoicous or dioicous. Calyx-tube adnate to the ovary 
in the females ; limb 5-toothed. Petals 5, free or joined below. 
Stamens usually 3, perigynous, free or monadelphous. Anther- 
cells in ours contorted. Ovary inferior, 3-celled ; placentas three, 
fleshy, often joining in the axis ; ovules very numerous; style simple 
or lobed ; stigmas various. Fruit usually fleshy and indehiscent. 
Seeds exalbuminous. — Climbing herbs, with tendrils and alternate 
leaves. Distrib. Cosmopolitan in warmer regions. Species 470. 
K 
