Page:Illustrations of Indian Botany, Vol. 1.djvu/266

136 My specimens, to which I had previously given the same specific name, accurately correspond with this character.

Sethia lanceolata, (R. W.) Leaves lanceolate, obtuse, short petioled, peduncles axillary, solitary, about thrice the length of the petiols, styles longer than the stamens, united about two-thirds of their length, free, and recurved at the apex, stigmas globose.

''Var. ß. obtusifolia''. Leaves from elliptical tapering slightly towards the base to obovate, cuneate.

Hab.—Courtallum in thick jungles.

These two varieties are probably distinct species, but as the form of the style and stigmas is the same in both, I prefer keeping them together, though they look different. In the first the leaves are long and narrow in proportion to (heir length, that is, from 2½ to 3 inches long, by about ¾ of an inch in breadth : while in the other they are about H inch in length, and | to 1 inch in breadth, and the siipules which sheath the ends of the young shoots are larger.

Sethia erythroxyloides, (R. W.) Leaves oblong, lanceolate, coriaceous, slightly refuse at the apex, subsessile : peduncles axillary, solitary, three or four times the length of the petiols: styles shorter than the stamens, free, nearly to the base; stigmas recurved, clavate.

Hab.—Courlallum in thick jungles.

This species is very closely allied to the former, but the marked difference in the styles and stigmas forbid their being united.


 * 1. Sethia indica, natural size.
 * 2. An expanded flower.
 * 3. The same, partially dissected with a detached petal, showing the scale at the base.
 * 4. The stamens removed to show the union of the filaments.
 * 5. Detached stamens back and front views.
 * 6. The ovary cut transversely, the upper half with the style and stigmas attached.
 * 7. The same cut vertically, showing the pendulous ovary.
 * 8. A mature fruit, natural size.
 * 9. Cut transversely, two of the cells empty.
 * 10. Cut vertically, showing the form of the seed.
 * Obs.—Owing to an oversight the numbers were not added in this plate, those here given are what ought to have been, and may be yet supplied with pen and ink.

 

A rather large order of tropical plants but principally confined to America, a very few being found in India, and these not of common occurrence. The greater number of Indian species are scandent shrubs, with jointed branches and opposite simple entire leaves, without dots, and minute stipules, some species of the order are clothed with appressed stinging bristles, others with silky pubescence. The flowers are for the most part bisexual, regular, racemose, or corymbose, rarely solitary, the pedicels often jointed in the middle and furnished with bractiols.

Calyx 5-sepaled, free or slightly united, persistent, imbricated in aestivation, and furnished with a definite number of conspicuous glands. Petals 5 unguiculate, inserted on a discoid torus, sometimes unequal, seldom wanting. Stamens 10, rarely fewer, filaments either distinct or partly united at the base, anthers roundish, 2-celled, opening by longitudinal lateral slits, introrse. Ovary usually 3-celled, occasionally more or less distinct, ovules solitary, pendulous, styles 3 distinct, or cohering into one. Fruit berried or dry, 3-celled, or by abortion, 2 or 1-celled and 1-seeded, often with the middle of the back expanded into a wing, seeds pendulous, attached to the central axis of the carpel, exarillate, albumen none. Embryo curved or straight : radicle superior, short. Cotyledons foliaceous, or fleshy.

The affinities of this order do not seem to be very clearly defined, at least I do not find them so in any work I can refer to. They are distinguished from Acerineae by their unguiculate petals, glandular calyx, and symmetrical flowers : but in Erythroxyleae, which, as stated above, are considered a mere section of Malpighiaceae, the petals are sessile, and in Hiptage, the claw is so short as scarcely to deserve notice. Here however the position of the ovules assists to distinguish them, being pendulous in this, erect in Acerineae. It is said that those genera of Hippocrateaceae which have samaroid fruit have sessile petals, this is not a good distinction, since in H. Arnotliana, the claws of the petals are, in proportion to their size, fully as long as those of Hiptage, the direction of the radicle, however, is different, being in this superior, in that inferior ; from which it would appear, that Malpighiaceae are only distinguishable from Hippocrateaceae and other allied orders " by the radicle of the embryo being uniformly superior," while in them it is inferior, Meisner in his Plantarum Vascularium Gevera combines into his class Malpighinae the following orders, Hippocastaneae, Sapindaceae, Malpighiaceae, Acerineae, Erythroxyleae, Hippouratiaceae, and ? Corearieae, the characters of which 