Page:Illustrations of Indian Botany, Vol. 1.djvu/427

Rh 


 * 1. C. Ceylanica, (Am.) ; foliis cuneato-obovatis obtusissimis subretusis latitudine subdimidio-longioribus. Arn. l. c. ; Wight Cat. n. 2446— C. obcordata, Wight in litt.
 * 2. C. corymbosa, (Wight); foliis oblongo-obovalibus obtusis vel obsolete ac obtuse acuminatis latitudine 2 — 2£ plo longioribus.— Wight Cat. n. 2447 .—Rheed. H. Mai. v. t. 13 (inflorescentia ac floribus pessime delineatis.)
 * 3. C. Sinensis, (Am.); foliis cuneato-obovatis breviter ac obtuse acuminatis latitudine subduplo longioribus. Arn. l. c. (cum. syn.)
 * 4. C. integerrirna, (D.C.) ; foliis ovalibus subacuminatis latitudine duplo longioribus.


 * 1. Kandelia Rheedei, (W. & A.) Flowering branch—natural size.
 * 2. A dissected flower to show the relative position of parts.
 * 3. Stamens.
 * 4. Stigma.
 * 5-6. Ovary cut transversely and vertically, 3 celled, with two pendulous ovules in each.
 * 7. A fruit at the commencement of germination.
 * 8. A fruit after germination has considerably advanced nearly a toot in length—natural size.
 * 9-10. Sections of the fruit and tigellus —natural size, with the exceptions mentioned, all more or less magnified.


 * 1. Flowering branch of Carallia Ceylanicus —natural size.
 * 2. A dissected flower.
 * 3. Stamens.
 * 4. A petal detached.
 * 5-6. Ovary cut transversely and vertically —all more or less magnified.

 

This is one of the most strictly tropical orders we have yet had to examine, for, though some species extend beyond these limits yet none go beyond the warmer latitudes on either side.

The species are all either trees or shrubs, often scandent, sometimes with opposite, sometimes alternate, coriaceous, simple, undivided, exstipulate leaves, rarely with pellucid dots. The flowers are regular, generally bi-sexual, but sometimes by abortion, unisexual, or polygamous, arranged in axillary or terminal spikes or capitulse.

"Calyx 4-5 lobed, lobes deciduous. Petals alternate with the lobes, or wanting. Stamens twice as many as the lobes, rarely, equal in number to them or thrice as many : filaments distinct, subulate : anthers bi-locular, bursting longitudinally. Ovarium coherent with the tube of the calyx, 1-celled : ovules 2-5, pendulous from the apex of the cavity : style 1, slender : stigma simple. Fruit drupaceous, baccate, or nutlike, 1-celled, indehiscent, often winged. Seed solitary (by abortion) pendulous. Albumen none. Radicle superior : cotyledons usually leafy, and either convolute or variously folded, sometimes fleshy and plano-convex.—Trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate or opposite, exstipulate."

These are not easily defined according to DeCandolle, the polypetalous genera approach Myrtaceae while the apetalous ones have a closer affinity with Santalaceae and Elaeagneae, and even with Laurineae through Gyrocarpus. Combretum differs from the rest of the order in having quaternary flowers with 8 stamens, and folded not spirally convolute cotyledons. From Myrtaceae and Onagrarieae and Memecyleae, they differ in their 1-celled ovary and pendulous ovules. From Santalaceae and Elaeagneae they are distinguished by the foliaceous convolute or plaited, not fleshy cotyledons. This last structure, which separates them from all other orders, allies them with Gyrocarpeae which has spirally convolute cotyledons, but from which they are easily distinguished by the longitudinal, not valvular, dehiscence of the cells of the anthers. "The solitary carpel of which the fruit consists is peculiar to these and to Alangieae, and neatly distinguishes those two orders from all others of the myrtal alliance" Lind. Upon the whole the weight of authority is in favour of the present station as all those writers who have given much of their attention to natural affinities agree in placing Combretaceae among the series of orders with which they are here associated. 