135 



Properties. Their powerful odour and their bitterness characterise 

 them ; they act principally on the nerves. Common Rue, and_another 

 species, are said to be emmenagogue, anthelmintic, and sudorific. 



Examples. Ruta, Peganum. 



CXVII. CORIARIEiE. 



ConiARiE^, Dec. Prodr. 1. 739. (1824.) 



Diagnosis. Polypetalous dicotyledons, with definite hypogynous sta- 

 mens, anthers bursting by longitudinal slits, 5 distinct simple carpella sur- 

 rounding a fleshy axis, exstipulate leaves without pellucid dots, no albumen, 

 filiform stigmas, and sepaloid petals. 



Anomalies. 



Essential Character Flowers either hermaphrodite, or monoecious, or dioecious. 



Calyx campanulate, 5-parted, ovate. Petals 5, alternate with the lobes of the calyx, and 

 smaller than they are, fleshy, with an elevated keel in the inside. Stamens 10, arising 

 from the torus, 5 between the lobes of the calyx and the angles of the ovarium, 5 between 

 the petals and the furrows of the ovarium ; filaments filiform ; anthers oblong, 2-celled. 

 Ovarium seated on a thickish torus, 5-celled, 5-angled ; style ; stigmas 5, long, subulate ; 

 omila solitary, pendulous. Carpella 5, when ripe close together but separate, indehiscent, 

 l-seeded, surrounded with glandular lobes. Seed pendulous; albumen none; embryo 



straight ; radicle superior ; cotyledons 2, fleshy Shrubs, with opposite square branches, 



often 3 on each side, 2 of them being secondary to an intermediate principal one. Leaves 

 opposite, simple, 3-ribbed, entire, ovate, or cordate. Buds scaly. Racemes terminal, 

 simple, leafy at the base ; pedicels often with two little bracteae in the middle. 



Affinities. Placed by M. DecandoUe immediately after Ochnaceae, 

 with which the order no doubt agrees, in having its ovaria distinct, and 

 surrounding a fleshy axis ; but the stigmata in Coriariese are long, linear, 

 and distinct, with no style, while Ochnaceae have a single style connecting 

 the carpella and minute stigmas ; the former, therefore, are apocarpous, 

 the latter svncarpous. Coriariese are also certainly allied to Rutaceae, 

 but they differ from them as they do from Ochnaceae ; and besides, the 

 carpella are in Rutaceae connate. With Connaracese they agree in several 

 points, while they are different in others. Upon the whole, their exact 

 affinity may be considered unsettled. 



M. DecandoUe understands Coriaria as apetalous, but I do not see 

 upon what principle, either of structure or analogy. In his Essai sur les 

 Proprietes Medicales he referred it to the vicinity of Rhamneae, p. 350. 

 Jussieu referred it to Malpighiaceae. 



Geography. 4 from Peru, 1 from the south of Europe and north of 

 Africa, 1 from New Zealand, and I from Mexico. 



Properties. Coriaria myrtifolia is used by dyers for staining black. 

 Its fruit is poisonous. It is said that several soldiers of the French army in 

 Catalonia were affected by eating it ; 15 became stupified, and 3 died. Dec. 



Example. Coriaria. 



