95 



stance which exudes spontaneously from it is called Ulmin ; it is also 

 found in the Oak, Chestnut, and other trees, and, according to Ber- 

 zelius, is a constituent of most kinds of bark. Turner, 700. 

 Examples. Ulmus, Celtis. 



LXXX. ARTOCARPE^. The Bread-Fruit Tribe. 



ARTOCARPEiE, R. Broxon in Congo (1818); Blume Bijdr. 479; «w(iPHOLEOSANTHE^, 

 435, both sections o/UrticeBe*(1825.)— SycoidEjE, Link Handb. 1. 292. (1829.) 



Diagnosis. Apetalous lactescent dicotyledons, with flowers in fleshy 

 heads, definite suspended ovula, alternate stipulate leaves, and radicle turned 

 towards the hilum. 



Anomalies. Antiaris has solitary flowers, and the ovarium cohering 

 with the involucrum. 



Essential Character. — Floioers monoecious, in heads or catkins. Calyx with an 

 uncertain number of divisions, which are often membranous ; sometimes tubular, or entire. 

 Stamens uncertain in number, either solitary or several, straight. Ovarium 1- or 2-celled, 

 superior, rarely inferior ; ovulum suspended ; style single, filiform ; stigma bifid. Fruit 

 usually a fleshy receptacle, either covered by numerous nuts, lying among the persistent 

 fleshy calyxes, or enclosing them within its cavity ; occasionally consisting of a single nut, 

 covered by a succulent involucrum. Seed suspended solitary, ; embryo inverted, with its 

 radicle pointing to the hilum, straight or curved, with or without albumen. — Trees, 

 shrubs, or herbs. Leaves alternate, toothed or lobed, or entire, smooth or covered with 

 asperities ; stipules membranous, deciduous, convolute in vernation. 



Affinities. The Fig maybe taken as the type of this order, which 

 agrees with Urticese in its apetalous flowers, scabrous alternate leaves, and 

 membranous stipulse ; but which differs in its habit and milky juice, and in 

 the position of the ovulum, which is constantly suspended, not erect. Mr. 

 Brown, indeed, in his Appendix to the Congo Expedition, says that in 

 Artocarpeae " the ovulum, which is always solitary, is erect, while the 

 embryo is inverted or pendulous." But this statement must be an over- 

 sight: I have constantly found the ovulum suspended in Artocarpus incisa, 

 Madura aurantiaca, Ficus Carica, and other species, and in all the Dor- 

 stenias, in the whole of which' there is a very conspicuous foramen im- 

 mediately against the point of attachment of the ovulum. 



Geography. Natives of all parts of the tropics, particularly of the 

 East Indies ; a few species, in the form of Morus and Madura, and the 

 cultivated Fig, straggle northwards as far as Canada and Persia. Dor- 

 stenias are remarkable for being herbaceous Brazilian weeds, in an order 

 composed otherwise of trees or shrubs. 



Properties. The Fig, the Bread-fruit, the Jack, and the Mulberry, 

 are all found here, and are a curious instance of wholesome or harm- 

 less plants in an order which contains the most deadly poison in the 

 world, the Upas of Java; the juice, however, of even those which have 

 wholesome fruit, is acrid and suspicious ; and in a species of Fig, Ficus toxi- 

 caria, is absolutely venomous. The juice of all of them contains a greater 

 or less abundance of caoutchouc, and the Cecropia peltata is reported to 

 yield American caoutchouc. But Humboldt doubts whether this is the 

 fact, as its juice is difficult to inspissate. Cinch. For. p. 44. The seeds of 

 a plant nearly allied to Cecropia, called Musanga by the Africans of the 

 Gold Coast, as well as those of Artocarpus, are eatable as nuts. The famous 

 Cow Tree, or Palo de Vacca, of South America, which yields a copious 



