The genera of South African plants : arranged according to the natural system / by William Henry Harvey.

  • William H. Harvey
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The genera of South African plants : arranged according to the natural system / by William Henry Harvey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    / H-G Liv. LTTHBAKIEiE. only as many. Ovary 2-celled; style filiform; stigma capi- tate. Capsule oblong, enclosed in tbe calyx, 2-celled, many- seeded.—FI. Cap. ii. p. 516. Herbs, occasionally half-shrubby, with opposite alternate or whorled, entire leaves. Flowers axillary, purple or purplish, often handsome; petals quickly withering.—3 species, of which 2 are Eastern and endemic, the third nearly cosmopolitan. 4. NES-2EA, Comm. Calyx hemispherical, bracted or bractless; ribbed or striate, with 4-6 erect, triangular inner teeth, and as many smaller, narrow, or horn-like, spreading outer teeth. Petals 4-6. Sta- mens 8-12, nearly equal. Ovary sessile, globose, 4-celled. Capsules globose or subglobose, covered by the calyx, many- aeeded.—FI. Cap. ii. p. 517. Herbs, with lanceolate or oblong, nearly sessile, obtuse or acute, entire leaves. Peduncles axillary, longish, 3-lloworcd or capitate, and many- flowcrcd at the summit.—N. Jloribunda, Sd., our only species, grows near Natal. Flowers capitate. Tribe 2. IlETEEOPYXinEiE. (Oen. 5.) 5. HETEROPYXIS, Harv. Flowers polygamous.—Male: Calyx cup-shaped, with 5 erect, triangular lobes. Petals 5, ovate, inserted in the throat of the caly.x, subsessile, pellucid-dotted. Disk, lining the calyx-tube, thin. Stamens 5, inserted with the petals and opposite to them !; filaments subulate ; anthers 2-celled, versa- tile. Abortive ovary 2- r.arcly 3-cellcd, many-ovuled; style short; stigma obtuse.—Female: Calyx 10-nerved, with 5 erect, triangular lobes, and as many minute, alternating denticles. Petals and stamens as in but the 2-cclled anthers abortive. Ovary 2-celled; ovules many, on axile ])lacentas; style fili- form, much-exserted; stigma capitate. Capsules oblong, 2- celled, girt by the persistent calyx. Seeds (unripe only seen). —Thes. Cap. t. 128. An aromatic tree or large shrub, found near Natal, with alternate, short- ))ctioled, lanceolate, pellucid-dotted, penninerved leaves, and dull wliite iViigrant flowers in terminal or axillary panicles. Wlien I published this genus in the ‘ Thesaurus ’ I was only cognizant of the male flowers, in which, however, the ovary, ovules- and style, though abortive, wei-e so completely organized that the flower passed as bisexual. Recently I have received from my zealous and most obliging friend Mr. Gerrard, the true female flower and half-ripe fruit. These afford an additional calycine character, which completely reconciles Ileteropyxis to Lythrariece. Order LV. ONAGRARIE.^. Flowers bisexual, rarely dioecious. Calyx-tube adnate with
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