72 
WRIGHT : THE GENUS DTOSPYROS 
It must here be stated that the female flowers of D. acuta, 
D. sylvatica, and D. Ebenum may occur in the solitary or 
grouped condition on the same tree. It now remains for us 
to study the relationships between the parts of a solitary 
female flower and the members of a female inflorescence. 
Development of the Female Flowers in D. G-ardneri , D. 
Embryopteris, and others .—In D. Gardneri the pubescent 
flower bud arises in the axil of a new or old foliage leaf. 
The peduncle is very short and rarely exceeds 0*4 cm. in 
length, but very soon two small leaves appear at right angles 
to the antero-posterior axis. In addition to these a third leaf 
may appear between the normal foliage leaf and the anterior 
side of the flower, and this may be followed by a fourth on 
the opposite side between the axis and the posterior side of 
the flower. Under ordinary circumstances, and even if the 
flowers be cut away so as not to greatly disturb surrounding 
organs, no development takes place in either of the bracts 
numbered 1, 2, 3, and 4. If, however, we now study the 
development of the female inflorescence in D. Embryopteris, 
we find exactly the same sequence of events, but in addition 
a flower bud appears in the axil of each of the small leaves 
on the primary peduncle (pi. IX., figs. 7-10). Similarly 
with the female inflorescences of other species. It is further 
to be noted that when the female inflorescence forms a 
sessile cluster the appearance of each flower is always pre¬ 
ceded by that of the small leaf, and in many of them a 
considerable amount of abortion occurs. 
Often in D. Thwaitesii there is a solitary female flower 
surrounded at the base by an involucre of bracts, abortion 
having occurred in the axil of the lower bracts. We may 
therefore arrange the female flower systems in one series to 
show that the solitary flower arrangement is probably derived 
from the cymose inflorescence by abortion in the axil of the 
lower bracts. This is the most likely course of evolution, 
since the lateral flowers in the inflorescence of D. Embry¬ 
opteris often drop before they reach maturity in consequence 
of the pressure exerted by the quickly growingmedian flower. 
