Page:Illustrations of Indian Botany, Vol. 1.djvu/351

ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY.

173 equal in number to the placentas. Fruit baccate, or capsular, and loculicide ; cells polysperm- ous, usually incomplete. Seed* covered with a glutinous or resinous pulp, or arillale. Embryo minute, contained in a fleshy albumen near the hilum : radicle long : cotyledons very short. — Leaves simple, alternate, exstipulate. Flowers sometimes polygamous."

The affinities of this order are still undetermined, and no two Botanists, who have given their attention to the subject, seem to be agreed on the station they should orctipy in the natural arrangement. " Brown in establishing this as an order remarks that it is widely different from Rhamnece and Celaslrinece, but without pointing out its real affinity" (Lindley). DeCandolle places it next to Poly galeae, but without assigning any reason for so doing. Achille Richard places it between Rutaceae and Geraniaceae, and remarks regarding it that " he genera which compose this family were formerly placed among the Rhamneae, but (heir hypo- gynous insertion removes them to a great distance from that family. M. DeCandolle places the Pittosporeae between Polygaleae and Franhen iaceae, but it appears to us that (bis family should be placed near the Rutaceae which it resembles in a great many characters." J.indley on the other hand refers the order to his group Albumenosae and places it between Ampeledeae and Olacineae, with both of which it associates in the structure of the seed, though as it appears to me it differs greatly in other respects. Notwithstanding the opinion of Dr. Brown, quoted above, we have, in our Prodromus, placed it next to Ce/astrineae, forming the last order of DeCandolle's sub-class of exogenous plants Di< hamydfjE Thalamiflor^. 1 his arrange- ment has been adopted, with a doubt, however by Meisner, but upon the whole seems more nearly correct than any of those which have gone before, and seems strongly supported by the fact of Dr. Roxburgh having referred one species of Piltosporum to the genus Celastrus, his C. verticellalus being in truth a Piltosporum. The variable character of the fruit in both, the loculicidal dehiscence of the capsular forms, and the usually albuminous seed of both, are all in favour of this station for the order, add to which, Bartling places it between Rhamneae and Celastrineae in his class Tiicoceae.

New Holland is unquestionably the head quarters of this order, all the genera, except Piltosporum and Senaceae, being confined to that country ; species of Piltosporum are however very extensively distributed over the globe, being found not only widely diffused in Australia, but also in the Moluccas, China, Japan, and India, from the southern provinces of Ceylon up to the foot of the Himalaya mountains, and even in Madeira.

Nothing of any importance is known on this head. The wood of a species of Senacia, a native of the Mauritius, is handsomely veined, and the berries of a species of Bellardiera are eatable. The seeds of the Indian species are covered with a fragrant resinous fluid, which however soon dries on exposure to the air and loses its smell.

In addition to the three species of this order des- cribed in our Prodromus I have one undescribed from Ceylon, differing from all the others in having long obovate cuniate leaves and compound cory mbose inflorescence : that is, the terminal shoot and each of the lateral branches of the corymb constitute so many small corymbs. The leaves blacken in drying, which is not the case with the other species so far as I have seen. It forms a large shrub growing on the banks of water courses on the more elevated parts of the Island.

Pitiasporum Ceylanicum, (R.W.) Shrubby, diffuse, ra- form, each division corvmbose, petals 5, linear, about mous, leaves obovale cuneate, bluntly acuminated, en- three times the length of the sepals: young fruit tire, glabrous, congested near the summits of the densely clothed with greyish tomeutum, and termina- branches : panicles axillary and terminal; several to- ted by the persistent style and stigma: fruit glabrous, gether on the apex of the branches, springing from the 2-celled.

axils of a whorl of 4 leaves: peduncles longish, fili- Ceylon on the banks of streams among thick jungle.

1. Pittosporum Neelgherrense — natural size.

2. A flower partially dissected, showing the insertion of the stamens, the ovary, style and stigma.

3. Anthers back and front views.

4. Ovary cut transversely, imperfectly 2-celled.

5. vertically, ovules superposed.

6. A mature capsule after dehiscence.

7. A seed — natural size.

8. magnified.

9. cut transversely, all albuminous — the cen- tral circle a mere flourish of the draughtsman — with the exceptions mentioned, all more or less magnified.