130 



mens, partially concrete carpella, an imbricated calyx, symmetrical unisexual 

 flowers, definite pendulous ovules, capsular or drupaceous fruit, and exsti- 

 pulate dotted leaves. 



Anomalies. Many species have distinct carpella. 



Essential Character. — F/owers unisexual, regular. Calyx in 3, or more com- 

 monly in 4 or 5 divisions. Petals the same number, very rarely none, usually longer 

 than the calyx ; (estivation generally twisted, convolute. Stamens equal to the petals in num. 

 ber, or twice as many, arising from around the base of the stalk of the abortive caq)ella ; in 

 the female flowers wanting or imperfect. Ovarium made up of the same number of pieces 

 as there are petals, or of a smcJler number, either altogether combined, or more or less 

 distinct ; ovules in each cell 2, collateral, or one above the other, very seldom 4 ; styles 

 more or less combined, according to the degree of cohesion of the carpella. Fruit either 

 berried or membranous, sometimes of from 2 to 6 cells, sometimes consisting of several 

 drupes or 2-valved capsules, of which the sarcocarp is fleshy and partly separable from the 

 endocarp. Seeds solitary or twin, pendulous, usually smooth and shining, with a testaceous 

 integument ; embryo lying within fleshy albumert ; radicle superior ; cotyledons ovate, flat. 



Trees or shrubs. Leaves without stipulae, alternate or opposite, either simple, or more 



commonly abruptly or unequally pinnate, with pellucid dots. Flowers axillary or terminal, 

 gray, green, or pink. The various parts bitter or aromatic. 



Affinities. This Is one of the families which comprehend genera 

 with both distinct and concrete carpella ; the latter are often entirely distinct, 

 even in the ovarium ; but most frequently there is a union, or at least a 

 cohesion, of the styles, by which their tendency to concretion may be recog- 

 nised. In a few instances the carpella are absolutely solitary. " The place 

 originally assigned, and for a long time preserved, for most of the genera of 

 Xanthoxylese, proves sufficiently how near the affinity is between them and 

 Terebintaceae. If, with Messrs. Brown and Kunth, the latter are divided 

 into several orders, Xanthoxylese will be most immediately allied to Burser- 

 aceae and Connaracese, agreeing with the former in the genera with a 

 simple fruit, and with the latter in those with a compound one. Not- 

 withstanding the distance which usually intervenes in classifications between 

 Aurantiaceas and Terebintacese, there are nevertheless many points of 

 resemblance between them ; Correa has pointed out a passage from one 

 to the other through Cookia ; Kunth, in new-modelling the genus Amyris, 

 and in considering it the type of a distinct order, suspects its near affinity 

 with Aurantiacese ; we cannot, therefore, be surprised at the existence also 

 of relations between the latter and Zanthoxyleue. A mixture of bitter and 

 aromatic principles, the presence of receptacles of oil that are scattered 

 over every part, which give a pellucid dotted appearance to the leaves, and 

 which cover the rind of the fruit with opaque spaces, — all these characters 

 give the two families a considerable degree of analogy. This has already 

 been indicated by M. de Jussieu in speaking of Toddalia, and in his remarks 

 upon the families of Aurantiaceae and Terebintaceao ; and it is confirmed by 

 the continual mixture, in all large herbaria, of unexamined plants of Tere- 

 bintace-cP, Xanthoxylcir, and Aurantiaceae. The fruit of the latter is, 

 however, extremely different; their seeds resembling, as they do, Terebin- 

 taceae, are on that very account at variance with Xanthoxyleoe, but at the 

 same time establish a further point of affinity between them and some 

 Rutaceous plants which are destitute of albumen. Unisexual flowers, fruit 

 separating into distinct cocci, seeds solitary or twin in these cocci, enclos- 

 ing a usually smooth and blackish integument, which is even sometimes 

 hollowed out on its inner edge, a fleshy albumen surrounding an embryo 

 the radicle of which is superior, are all points of analogy between Xan- 

 thoxylen? and Euphorbiacea^, particularly between those which have in their 

 male flowers from 4 to 8 stamens inserted round the rudiment of a pistil, 

 and in the female flowers cells with 2 suspended, usually collateral, ovules. 



