in the ovaries of the pistils. They then escape and fly to the others, enter the hole, and convey the pollen to the female flowers below. These then enable the figs to mature without prematurely falling.

There are several species of fig, natives of the Eastern districts and Natal. The fibre of the bark is used for ropes of certain species, but the fruit and wood are of no use.

General Description of the Nettle Family.

Herbs, shrubs, or trees.

Leaves-Opposite or alternate, often with stinging hairs, stipulate.

Flowers-Mostly unisexual; calyx, cleft; stamens as many as sepals inflexed in bud, sometimes with spring-like filaments; ovary, free, 1-celled.

Fruit-Nut or achene, free, or in a fleshy receptacle (Fig), or fleshy calyx (Mulberry).

Amentaceæ.

THE CATKIN-BEARERS.

This is not strictly an order or family, but is a group of plants, having the male, and sometimes the female, flowers clustered on long stalks forming catkins. The chief native genus, which has 9 species at the Cape, is called the Wax-berry, Myri'ca, giving the

name to a family, Myricaceae, containing only this single genus.

The introduced trees are the following:

The Poplar (Populus); species of the Willow (Sa'lix), of which there is one native species, S. capen'sis, with a silky-leaved variety (hirsu'ta).

These two genera make up the order Salicaceæ.

The Walnut (Juglans re'gia) represents another order, Juglandacea, with five genera.

The Oak and edible Chestnut represent the order Cupuliferæ, or "cup-bearers," in allusion to the cup of the acorn and prickly covering to the chestnuts. This order has ten genera in three tribes. It contains 400 species, scattered over the north temperate regions of the whole world. Four only are British, the Oak, the Beech, the Hazel, and the Hornbeam.

Sa'lix. The willows are dioecious. The male tree has its flowers in a dense elongated catkin. Each flower consists of two or more stamens only in the axil of a bract. The female tree has its flowers also in catkins, each flower consisting of a pistil of two carpels. The seeds have a tuft of silky hairs at one end.

Quer'cus.-The Oak, familiar to all in the Peninsula, has been long introduced (Fig. 94). A is a young branch with three slender "interrupted" male catkins, i.e. there are marked intervals on the peduncle between the flowers. Each consists of a gamosepalous calyx of

a variable member of lobes (I.). Stamens usually about ten (but only six are given in I.). The female flowers are on the same tree, the oak being monœcious. First to be noticed is the little cup lapping or imbricated scales (II.).

A.

composed of overWithin this is the

II

III.

FIG. 94.-A. Catkin of the Oak. I. Male flower of Oak. II. Female flowers.
(Both X 3.) III. Female flower, cut vertically.

female flower. It consists of a pistil of three carpels, as shown by the three-lobed stigma, the ovary being invested by a receptacular tube, and is, therefore, inferior.

The calyx limb is almost imperceptible, being a

R

little jagged rim only, not represented in (II.), but visible below the stigmas in (III.).

The three cells of the ovary contain two ovules each, but when it becomes an acorn only one ovule is developed into a seed; this enlarges so much that the other two ovary-cells are pushed to one side. The large embyro with its two massive cotyledons quite fills the interior. The cup grows at the same time, so that it is always large enough to hold the acorn as it continues to increase in size (III.).

Myri'ca (Fig. 95). The species consist of shrubs often with a balsamic odour. They are monœcious or dicecious, in catkins. There is a bract, sometimes with two bracteoles, or minute bracts, to the male flower. The bracteoles are wanting in (II., III.). This consists of two to eight stamens, some being often abortive. The anthers are extrorse (III.). The female flower has from two to three scales. There is no calyx, only a pistil with a one-celled ovary, having a solitary erect ovule. There are two stigmas, possibly indicating two carpels (IV.). The fruit is somewhat "drupaceous " and one-seeded (V., VI.). The fruit is covered with little round papilla, or hemispherical protuberances, which are often covered with wax (IV.). When a fruit, as the grape, is covered with a very thin layer of wax, this is called the "bloom" of the fruit.

The reader may wonder why it is that some orders have an immense number of genera and species, such

as the Composite, Leguminosa, etc., or some one or more

FIG. 95.-Myri'ca. I. Flowering shoot. II. Monoecious inflorescence; female flowers above; male, below. III. Bract and stamens of male flower. IV. Pistil of the English M. Ga'le, Sweet Gale. V. Transverse section of fruit. VI. Embryo.

genera of a family may abound in species, as the Heath;