428 ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE NATURAL ORDERS. 



become drupes or berries ; and the albumen is not hard Hke horn, 

 but only fleshy. — Ex. Aralia (the Spikenard, the Wild Sarsaparilla, 

 Ginseng), and Hedera (the Ivy). Their properties are aromatic, 

 stimulant, somewhat tonic, and alterative. 



836. Orel. CoriiacCBB {Cornel oy Dogivood Family). Chiefly trees or 

 shrubs ; with the leaves almost always opposite, destitute of stipules. 

 Flowers in cymes, sometimes in heads surrounded by colored involu- 

 cres. Calyx coherent w^ith the two-celled ovary ; the very small 

 limb four-toothed. Petals four, valvate in aestivation. Stamens 

 foui', alternate wdth the petals. Styles united into one. Fruit a 

 two-celled drupe. Embryo nearly as long as the albumen ; cotyle- 

 dons bi'oad and flat. — Ex. Cornus, the Dogwood. Chiefly remark- 

 able for their bitter and astringent bark, which in this country has 

 been substituted for Cinchona. The peculiar principle they contain 

 is named Cornine. Cornus Canadensis (Fig. 321, 322) is a low 

 and herbaceous species. — A reduced form of this order occurs in 

 Nyssa (the Tupelo or Sour-Gum), which has dioecious or polyga- 

 mous flowers, the sterile ones at least apetalous, the fertile ones ap- 

 pearing to be so on account of the limb of the adherent calyx being 

 obsolete ; the style stigmatic down one side and revohite ; the ovary 

 and drupe one-celled and one-seeded. The fruit is acid. The wood 

 of the common Sour or Black Gum-tree, or Peperidge, is close- 

 grained, and hard to s^^lit. 



Division II. Monopetalous Exogenous Plants. 



Floral envelopes consisting of both calyx and corolla : the petals 

 more or less united (corolla gamopetalous) . — A few true Ericaceae, 

 with all the Pyroleaj and some Monotropea?, are polypetalous : the 

 AquifoliaceaB are nearly so, as are some of several of the succeeding 

 orders, and Fraxinus, &c. in Oleaceoe. The latter genus is apeta- 

 lous, and so are one or two genera in other generally INIonopetalous 

 orders. 



Conspectus of the Orders. 



Group 1. Ovary coherent with the calyxr, two- to several-celled, with one or 

 many ovules in each cell. Seeds albuminous, with a small embryo. Sta- 

 mens inserted on the corolla. Leaves opposite. 



Stipules wanting. Capri foliacejE. 



Stipules interpetiolar (or in one group the leaves whorled). Rcbiace^. 



