Page:Illustrations of Indian Botany, Vol. 1.djvu/328

164 value as it doss not seem constant in Oxalideae. From the former, in addition to the absence of pellucid dots, they differ in wanting the elastic structure of the carpals so remarkable in the true Rutaceae.

Species of this family are found in every quarter of the globe Europe, Africa, Asia, America, and New Holland. Fagonia and Tribulus are both found in the south of Europe as well as in India. The former abounds in the Ceded Districts and also in Mysore, but I have never seen it in the Carnatic, the latter, Tribulus, is one of the most common weeds all over India, and a very troublesome one, owing to the thorns with which its carpels are armed.

The roots and leaves of Tribulus are said by native practitioners to be diuretic, the latter are used by the natives as a pot herb and are esteemed very cooling in particular states of the system. Of the American species the Gualac is the most important and is still much used in medicine. The Zygophyllum Fabago is occasionally used as an anthelmintic.

In so far as Indian Botany is concerned there is but little room for remark on this head. I may however observe that the numerous varieties which the Indian plants present seem to afford strong ground for doubting whether all the species referred to each of the two genera are tenable. Oar Tribulus for example has the leaves with from 3 to 8 pairs of leaflets, the carpels with two or four spines often on the same plant, and every degree of clothing from nearly glabrous to densely tomentose, I thence infer that both T. tenestris and T. lanuginosa are identical, and probably several others may be reduced to that species. Fagonia Mysorensis is characterized as having simple not trifolialate leaves. The accompanying figure will show how erroneous that is, and I doubt not the same will be found in several of the others and prove that they all form but one species.


 * 1. Fagonia mysorensis —natural size.
 * 2. A flower.
 * 3. The sam?, petals removed and sepals forcibly opened to show the insertions of the stamens and the ovary in situ.
 * 4. Stamens back and front views.
 * 5. Ovary cat vertically, ovules erect.
 * 6. ---transversely, 5-celled, each cell or carpel attached to a central gynojihore.
 * 7. A fruit —natural size.
 * 8. The same cut transversely.
 * 9. A seed.
 * 10. Divided lengthwise, to show the embryo seated in the base of the large albumen.
 * 11. Embryo removed —with the exceptions mentioned, all more or less magnified.

 

In Indian Botany this is a very unimportant order, three species only having as yet been found in the Peninsula, and one at least of these, Ruta angustifolia, a doubtful native. Of the section Diasmeae, by for the larger of the two into which it is divided, only one species Dictarnnm Hiinilayaaus, has been found in all India and that confined to the Himalayas. Cyminosma is the only genus of Rutaceae which I have found unequivocally native, and it is a very abundant tree in subalpine jungles all over the country.

"Flowers bisexual, regular. Calyx 4-5 divided. Petals alternate with the sepals : eestivation between twisted and convolute, rarely valvular. Stamens twice or rarely thrice as many as the petals, inserted round the base of the torus : anthers 2-celled, opening longitudinally. Torus various, discoid, or elevated, or cup-shaped. Ovary usually more or less deeply 3-5 partite, 3-5 celled: ovules in each cell 2 4, or 6 12, or numerous, pendulous, or partly pendulous, or adnate to the placentas : styles combined, or in the deeply lobed ovaries distinct at the base and combined upwards: stigma 3-5 angled or furrowed. Capsule usually 4-5 lobed, the lobes opening internally at the apex: rarely 3-valved and loculicide, or a 4-celled drupe: