. The natural history of plants. Botany. 144 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. variable extent of their margin, sometimes even to the summit. In Fragosa, the leaves are numerous on the short erect aerial stems, imbricate, often narrow, linear. The inflorescences are terminal umbels, with pedicels frequently short. In Apleura, which appears to us to be also a section of the same genus, the inflorescence is reduced to one terminal flower, and the pericarp has a hard interior layer, representing a kind of putamen. Natives of Western and Southern America, chiefly the region of the Andes, of Australia and
. The natural history of plants. Botany. 144 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. variable extent of their margin, sometimes even to the summit. In Fragosa, the leaves are numerous on the short erect aerial stems, imbricate, often narrow, linear. The inflorescences are terminal umbels, with pedicels frequently short. In Apleura, which appears to us to be also a section of the same genus, the inflorescence is reduced to one terminal flower, and the pericarp has a hard interior layer, representing a kind of putamen. Natives of Western and Southern America, chiefly the region of the Andes, of Australia and New Zealand, these plants are almost all perennial, sometimes woody at the base; they not unfrequently have scarious stipules or scaly hairs at the base.' The habit is sometimes peculiar.^ Laretia, a csespitose herb of Chili, closely resembUng some species of Azorella, has flowers in simple terminal umbels with very short pedicels, and fruit, larger than that of Azorella, with broad flattened or concave mericarps thinned like wings at the sides. The undivided carpophore unites them only at the median line, and the lateral ridges correspond to the margins. The back bears the three ridges, median and dorso-lateral. Laretia is in some respects intermediate between Azorella and Muli- num, which has given name to a tribe (^Mulinece). The flowers of Mulinum have well developed pointed sepals, entire petals and elongate styles dilated interiorly to conical stylopods. In the fruit the back of the mericarps is quite concave, forming a re-entrant dihedral angle; and as the connexion of the mericarps is linear, the transverse section of the fruit (fig. 167) is in the form of a St. Andrew's cross. Mulinum comprises humble plants from sj) Fig. 167. Trans, sect, of carpel (|). ' Although generally referred to another division of this group, the genus Klotsehia appears to us very closely allied to Azorella and at the same time to Hydroeotyle such as Micro- pleura of which it has the
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectbotany, bookyear1871
