FAMILIES OF FLOWEKING PLANTS 



147 



ilies already discussed in having leaves without stipules.* The sepals 

 and petals are 4 or 5; the stamens, equal in number or more numerous, 

 are commonly united in a tube. The fruit is a berry, a drupe or a cap- 

 sule. Like the Simarubaceae, most of the trees of this family have 

 bark possessing bitter and tonic properties. The " pride-of-India " or 

 chinaberry tree {Melia Azederach) is extensively cultivated in the South 

 as a shade tree, and has now become thoroughly naturalized; it has 

 enormous pinnate leaves and large panicles of pink flowers succeeded 



Fig. 129. Byrsotnma hidda, natural size. Original. 



by small straw-colored berries. The tropical genera Trichilia and 

 Carapa yield useful oils. Swietenia 3Iahogoni is the source of mahog- 

 any (Fig. 128, no. 3). 



Family Malpighiaceae. Malpighia Family. Contains about 50 

 genera and 600 species, natives mainly of tropical America. They are 

 trees or shrubs with opposite stipule-bearing leaves and regular flowers 

 borne on jointed pedicels. Calyx 5-parted; petals 5, usually long- 

 clawed; stamens 10, inserted with the petals on a disk; ovary 3-lobed, 



* A stipule is the small leaf-like body borne at the base of an ordinary leaf. 



