Page:Illustrations of Indian Botany, Vol. 1.djvu/433

ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY.

213 Conocarpus has in like manner been by Dr. Wallich divided into two genera and apparently on good grounds, namely, the direction of the carpels and the comparative length of the calyx. He limits Conocarpus to the American species the tube of the calyx of which is not produced beyond the ovary, and the carpels are retrosely imbricated, not winged : while of the Indian species, which have the calyx produced considerably beyond the ovary and contracted into a slender neck, with the carpels imbricated upwards, winged and crowned by the neck of the calyx he forms the genus Anogelssua, from DeCandolle's section of the same name. This innovation is not adopted by Meisner in his genera Plantarum though it has been in the flora Senegambiae.

1. Terminalia Belerica, (Roxb.) Flowering branch — natural size.

2. A tio'vcr, the limb of the calyx to show the inser- tion of the stamens.

3. An anther afier dehiscence.

4. A fruit full grown.

5 6. The same cut transversely and vertically.

7. A seed with the cord, by which it is suspended from i lie apex of the cell of the nut.

.8. The testa removed to show the cotvledons.

y. Cut transversely, to show the cotyltdons spirally convolute.

1 . Quisqualis indica — natural size.

2. The ovary and the tube of ihe calyx opened, to show ihe insertion of the stamens and its adhesion with the lower portion of the style, the extremity only of the latter being free.

3. Stamens.

4. Ovary cut transversely, 1 -eel led.

5. Cut. vertically, showing three pendulous ovules.

6. Stigma.

7. A full grown fruit.

8-9. The same cut transversely and vertically. 10. The kernel removed from the cell.

 

This is a small order, in Indian Botany limited to one genus, Memecylon, a second is found in Cochin-china. It consists of shrubs or small trees, with opposite, simple, entire, often thick- ish succulent exstipulate leaves, with one central rib and without translucent dots. T he flowers are very numerous, small, axillary, pedicelled, sometimes congested in dense capitulos, occasion- ally corymbose; usually blue, forming together with the bright shining green leaves most beauti- ful plants, but strangely enough, no where, that I have seen, introduced into cultivation as orna- ments of the shrubbery or flower garden, though met with in every jungle.

" Calyx 4-5-lobed or toothed: the limb striated in the bottom on the inside. Petals 4-5, alternate with the sepals, imbricated into the form of a cone during aestivation. Stamens twice as many as the petals : filaments distinct, in aestivation almost wanting : anthers curved, 2 celled, opening by two short clefts, during aestivation pointing down wards .towards the bottom of the limb of the calyx, afterwards by the elongation of the filaments erect: connectivum produced below the cells into a kind of beak. Ovarium I -celled, coherent with the tube of the calyx: ovules 410, erect, seated at the base of the cell: style 1, filiform: stigma simple Fruit baccate, crowned by the limb of the calyx, usually from abortion, 1-celled Seeds nut-like: often solitary from abortion ; erect: testa crustaceous. Albumen none. Radicle curved down- wards : cotyledons foliaceous, crumpled and wrapped up, the one round the other, into the form of a little ball. Shrubs. Leaves opposite, simple, entire, without stipules or dots, feather- nerved, or rarely 3-nerved."

Affinities. The affinities of this order are on the one hand with M/jrtaceae with which they agree in habit, and in their opposite one ri'ibed leaves, but differ in their leaves wanting pellucid dots, and in their foliaceous convolute cotyle Ions, and on the other, with MeloMomaceae, to which they approach in the structure of their anthers and some other points, but differ in the form of the cotyledons and in their one not 3-nerved leaves. Notwithstanding these differ- ences, however, they have recently been by some eminent Botanists united as a sub-order with Melaatomncene. How far this union is judicious I am unable to say, not having studied them with sufficient attention to admit of my offering a decided opinion on the subject : though I con- fess that so far as present information extends I approve of keeping them disinct. I however 