TIIALAMIFLOR^, 



warmer parts of Europe, and has been found in Barbary, Te- 

 neriffe, and the East Indies. In the neighbourhood of Cold- 

 spring, it may be met with, covering patches of ground by the 

 road-sides. The flowers are very small, and there are seldom 

 more than two petals in each flower. 



ORDER II. DILLENIACE^. 



Distribution of the parts of the flower quinary: 

 {Estivation imbricated. — Calycine sepals : 2 external, 

 3 internal, persistent. Petals 5, uniserial, hypogy- 

 nous, deciduous. Stamens co, inserted on the disk, 

 free or polyadelphous, and either placed regularly 

 around the pistil, or on one side of it : anthers 2-celled, 

 always turned inwards. Fruit of 2-5 unilocular car- 

 pels, either distinct or cohering. Seeds either seve- 

 ral, or two, or by abortion sohtary, surrounded by a 

 pulpy arillus : testa hard : embryo minute, lying in 

 the base of the fleshy albumen. 



Trees, shrubs, or suffruticose shrubs. The flowers are in 

 general yellow, and in some of the species rival those of the 

 Cisti. They possess no remarkable properties. The leaves 

 and bark are astringent, without any bitter or aromatic flavour. 

 They are all natives of the warmer parts of the globe. 



I. Tetracera. 



Flowers most frequently dioecious, or polygamous. 

 Calycine sepals 4-6, roundish, imbricated, persist- 

 ent, after the anthesis frequently accrete, concave — 

 $ . Stamens cc, dilated at the apex. — ? . Ovaries 3-5 : 

 styles simple, acute. Capsules of the same number 

 as the styles, opening on the inner side, sub-bivalved : 

 seeds 1-2, ovate, shining, arillated De Cand. 



Shrubs or low trees, generally scandent : leaves alternate, 

 penninerved, coriaceous : flowers panicled or racemose — Name, 

 from rgrga four, and xjgaj a horn, from the four capsules being 

 recurved at the apex like so many horns. 



