237 



reticulated cellules, analogous to those of Maurandya Barclaiana. There 

 do not appear to be any very certain limits between Bignoniaceae, Cyrtan- 

 dracese, and Pedalineae, which might be reunited without much inconvenience. 

 Eccremocarpus may be considered the link between the two former, and Se- 

 samum that between the two latter. 



Geography. The tropics of either hemisphere are their chief station, 

 from which they extend northwards in North America as far as Pennsylvania, 

 and southwards into the southern provinces of Chile. In Europe they are 

 unknown. 



Properties. Little known, except the great beauty of their flowers. 

 Chica is a red feculent substance obtained by boiling the leaves of Bignonia 

 Chica in water; the Chica is quickly precipitated by adding some pieces of 

 the bark of an unknown tree, called Arayana. The Indians use it for paint- 

 ing their bodies red ; it is also becoming an article of importance to dyers. 

 Brewster, 2. 370. It approaches in nature the resins, l3ut contains some 

 peculiar properties: it gives an orange red to cotton. Ed. P. J. 12. 417. 

 The tough shoots of Bignonia Cherere are woven into wicker-work ; and 

 several kinds of Bignonias form large trees in the forests of Brazil, where 

 they are felled for the sake of their timber; that called Ipe-tabacco fur- 

 nishes durable ship-timber ; the Ipeuna, another species, the hardest wood 

 in Brazil. Pr. Max. Travels, p. 68. Another, called the Pao d'arco, sup- 

 plies one of the best kinds of woods used for bows by the Brazilian Indians, 

 especially the Botocudos of the Rio Grande de Belmonte, and the Patachos 

 of the Rio do Prado. Ihid. 238. 



Examples. Bignonia, Jacaranda, Spathodea. 



CCXVIII. MYOPORINE.E. 



Myoporin^, R. Brown Prodr. 514. (1810.) 



DiAOfOsis. Monopetalous dicotyledons, with irregular unsyrametrical 

 flowers, a superior 2- or 4-celled ovarium with definite pendulous ovules, in- 

 dehiscent fruit, a superior radicle, and albuminous seeds. 



Anomalies. 



Essential Characteu — Calyx 5-parted, persistent. Corolla monopetalous, hypo- 

 gynous, nearly equal or 2-lipped. Stamens 4, didynamovis, with sometimes the rudiment . 

 of a fifth one, which occasionally bears pollen. Ovarium 2- or 4-celled, the cells 1- or 

 2-seeded, with pendulous ovules ; sti/le 1 ; stigma scarcely divided. Fruit a drupe, with 

 a 2- or 4-celled putamen, the cells of which are 1- or 2-seeded. Seeds with albumen ; 



embryo taper; radicle superior Shrubs, with scarcely any pubescence. Leaves nimble, 



without stipulae, alternate or opposite. Flowers axillary, without bracteae. R. Br. 



Affinities. The principal characters in the fructification of this order, ' 

 by which it is distinguished from Verbenacese, are the presence pf albumen 

 in the ripe seed, aud the direction of the embryo, whose radicle always 

 points towards the apex of the fruit. The first of these characters is, how- 

 ever, not absolute, and neither of them can be ascertained before the ripen- 

 ing of the seed. R. Erown in Flinders, 567. 



GEociRAPHY. This Older, with the exception of Bontia, a genus of 

 equinoctial America, and of the species of Myoporum, found in the Sand- 

 wich Islands, has hitherto been observed only in the southern hemisphere, 

 and yet neither in South Africa nor in South America beyond the tropics. 

 Its maximum is evidently in the principal parallel of Terra Australis, in 

 every part of which it exists; in the more southern parts of New Holland, 



