Page:Illustrations of Indian Botany, Vol. 1.djvu/327

Rh  The members of this order are all natives of the tropics, and are met with in Asia, Africa and America, hut no where numerous. In India they have a wide range, extending from the southern extremity of Ceylon and the Peninsula, up to Silhet.

In Malabar, towards the extreme south two or three species are very abundant. In other parts of the continent, I have visited, they are comparatively unknown.

I am not aware of any uses to which these plants have been applied, some of them form handsome flowering shrubs and are not less interesting in appearence when in fruit than when in flower, the numerous bright-red capsules contrasting favourably with the deep green of the leaves long after the flowers have disappeared. Under cultivation, they might succeed here, and would form a showy addition to the ornamental shrubbery.

The Peninsular flora only presents us with two genera of this order, Connarus and Rouria. These are most easily distinguished by the ovary, which in the former is solitary, and 1-celled; while in the latter, there are 4 or 5, each having its own style and stigma. In the character of the flowers Rouria and Cnestis are very closely allied, each having five ovaries, hut the latter has albuminous seed, which is wanting in the former. Adopting these simple distinctions the perplexity existing among the genera and species of this order is at once removed, by the reduction of the heteromorphous genus Omphalobium, at present made up of species taken from each of these, and the restoration of Aublet's prior genus. The certain genera of this order then amount to three, Connarus, Rouria, and Cnestis, species of each of which are found in India.


 * 1. Connarus pinnatus—natural size.
 * 2. A flower showing the sepals and petals.
 * 3. The same, the sepals and petals removed to show the ovary and stamens.
 * 4. Anthers baik and front views.
 * 5. Ovary cut vertically, showing the lateral insertion of the ovules.
 * 6. ---transversely, showing the ovules paired and collateral.
 * 7. A mature capsule.
 * 8. The same opened to show the seed in situ.
 * 9. The seed divided longitudinally, showing the radicle superior or at the opposite end of the seed from the hilum.
 * 10. A seed cut transversely.
 * 11. A seed lobe, the testa removed.

 

This is a small order of tropical plants of which the Indian peninsula only presents two species, but referable to different genera, both mere weeds. In America however, some of the species, among which is the Guaiacum or Lignum vitae, attain a great size and afford very fine close-grained timber. The absence or presence of albumen in the seed seems in this order to be of small account, since in our two genera one (Fagonia) has it, and the other (Tribulus) is without.

" Flowers bisexual, regular. Calyx 4-5 divided. Petals unguiculate, alternate with the sepals : aestivation usually convolute. Stamens twice as many as the petals, hypogynous : filaments distinct, dilated at the base, and usually arising each from the back of a scale: anthers 2-celled, opening longitudinally. Ovarium simple, more or less 4-5 furrowed, 4 5 celled : ovules in pairs or more, pendulous, or rarely erect : style simple, often 4-5 furrowed : stigma simple, or 4-5 lobed. Fruit capsular, or rarely fleshy, with 4-5 angles or wings, 4 5 valved and loculicidal, or indehiscent : endocarp and sarcocarp combined. Seeds usually fewer than the ovules. Albumen between fleshy and horny, rarely 0. Embryo green : radicle superior : cotyledons foliaceous.—Leaves opposite, stipuled, not dotted, rarely simple."

Most Botanists agree in considering them nearly allied to Rutaceae, from which however they are readily distinguished by the want of pellucid clots in the leaves, which are always present in the other. They are also allied to Oxalideae between which orders DeCandolle places them, separating them from the latter by their single not several styles, by their stipulate opposite leaves, and by their seed not having an arillus. This last mark is of less 