235 



CCXV. PEDALINEiE. The Oil-Seed Tribe. 



Pedaling, R. Brown Prodr. 519. (1810) ; Lindley in Botan. Register, 9. 934. (1825) — 

 Sesame.?;, Kunth Sijnops. 2. 251. (1823). — Maktyniace^, Link Handb. 1. 504. 

 (1829) a sect, o/ Personatae: 



Diagnosis. Monopetalous dicotyledons, with a superior 1-Celled or 

 spuriously 4- or 6-celled short woody dehiscent or indehiscent fruit, a 

 woody variously-lobed placenta, irregular unsymmetrical flowers, and exal- 

 burainous apterous definite seeds. 



Anomalies. Sesamum has indefinite seeds. 



Essential Character. — Calyx divided into 5 nearly equal pieces. Corolla mo- 

 nopetalous, hypogynous, irregular ; the throat ventricose, the limb bilabiate. Stamens 

 didynamous, included within the tube, together with a rudiment of a fifth. Ovarium 

 seated in a glandular disk, unilocular or bilocular, with several 1- or 2-seeded spurious 

 cells, formed by the splitting of two placentas and the divergence of their lobes ; ovules 

 either erect, or pendulous, or horizontal ; style 1 ; stigma divided. Fruit drupaceous, 

 juiceless, with several cells formed as those of the ovarium. Seeds pendulous, with a papery 

 testa; albumen none; embryo straight. — Herbaceous plants. Leaves opposite. Flowers 

 axillary, each with two bracteae. 



Affinities. These differ from Bignoniacese in their wingless seeds, 

 which are usually definite, and in their woody parietal lobed placentae, which 

 spread and divide variously in the inside of the pericarpium, so as to produce 

 an apparently 4- or 6-celled fruit out of a 1 -celled ovarium. For an ex- 

 planation of the manner in which this takes place, see the Botan. Register, 

 fol. 934. From Cyrtandraceae they are known by their large seeds, free 

 from all appendage at either end, by their woody placentae, and short fruit. 

 Sesamum may be considered a transition from the one to the other. 



Geography. Found only within the tropics of Africa, Asia, and 

 America. 



Properties. The leaves of Sesamum are emollient. Its seeds contain 

 an abundance of a fixed oil, as tasteless as that of Olive oil, for which it 

 might be substituted, and which is expressed in Egypt in great quantities. 

 The fresh leaf of Pedalium murex, when agitated in water, renders it muci- 

 laginous, in which state it is prescribed by Indian doctors in cases of dysuria 

 and gonorrhoea. 



Examples. Pedalium, Pretrea, Josephinia, Martynia, Sesamum. 



CCXVI. CYRTANDRACE^. 



CyrtandracejE, Jack in Linn. Trans. 14. 23. {read 1822, in May) DidymocarpejE, 



Don in Edinb. Phil. Journ. 7. 82. (1822, July); Prodr. Fl. Nep. 121. (1825); 

 Martins H. R. Mon. (1829.) 



Diagnosis. Monopetalous dicotyledons, with a superior 1-celled or 

 spuriously 2-celled fruit, irregular unsymmetrical flowers, exalbuminous apte- 

 rous minute seeds, and membranous double placentae. 



Anomalies. 



Essential Character. — Calyx campanulate, 5-cleft or 5-leaved, equal. Corolla 

 tubular, irregxilar, 5-lobed, somewhat 2-lipped, the lobes imbricated in aestivation. Stamens 

 4, didynamous, of which 2 are sometimes sterile ; anthers 2-celled. Ovarium superior, 

 elongated, surroimded by an annular disk, l-celled, with 2 many-seeded jilacentae, each 

 of which consists of 2 divcrgiuiv plates ; style filiform ; stigma 2-lobed, or consisting of 

 2 plates. Fruit capsular or succulent ; the former siliquose and 2-valved, 1-celled, with 



