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Properties. Probably all astringents. Cytinus contains Gallic acid ; 

 and, according to M. Pelletier (Bull. Pharm. 1813. p. 290.) it has the sin- 

 gular property of precipitating gelatine, although it does not contain tannin. 

 Rafflesia is used in Java as a powerful astringent, for certain purposes. 



Example. Cytinus. 



LXIV. SANTALACEiE. The Sanders- Wood Tribe. 



Santalacejs, JR. Brown Prodr. 350. (1810); Juss. Diet, des Sc. Nat. 47. 287. (1827) ; hind. 

 Synops. 207. (1829.)— Osyride^, Juss. in Ann. Mas. vol. 5. (1802).— Nyssace^e, Juss. 

 in Diet, des Sciences, 35. 267. (1825.)— OsyrinjE, Link Handb. 1. 371. (1829.) 



Diagnosis. Apetalous dicotyledons, with definite pendulous ovules, solitary 

 flowers, and a 1-celled ovarium, with a tubular superior calyx. 



Anomalies. Osyris differs in its dioecious flowers, in having a trifid calyx 

 with only three stamens, and, according to the younger Gartner, an erect seed 

 with an embryo curved and lying a little out of the axis of the albumen, with 

 its radicle superior, and therefore turned away from the lrilum. 



Essential Character. — Calyx superior, 4- or 5-cleft, half-coloured, with valvate aestiva- 

 tion. Stamens 4 or 5, opposite the segments of the calyx, and inserted into their bases. 

 Ovarium 1-celled, with from 1 to 4 ovules, fixed to the top of a central placenta near the sum- 

 mit ; style 1 ; stigma often lobed. Fruit 1-seeded, hard and dry. and drupaceous. Albumen 

 fleshy, of the same form as the seed; embryo in the axis, inverted, taper. — Trees or shrubs, 

 sometimes under-shrubs or herbaceous plants. Leaves alternate, or nearly opposite, undi- 

 vided, sometimes minute, and resembling stipulre. Flowers in spikes, seldom in umbels, or 

 solitary, small. R. Br. 



Affinities. Closely allied to Elreagnere and Thymelaea. Mr. Brown 

 observes (Flinders, 569.) that one of the most remarkable characters of this 

 tribe consists in its unilocular ovarium containing more than one, but always a 

 determinate number of ovula, which are pendulous, and attached to the apex 

 of a central receptacle. This receptacle varies in its figure in the different 

 genera, in some being filiform, in others nearly filling the cavity of the ova- 

 rium. It appears, from the botanical Appendix to Captain Flinders' Voyage, 

 that there is a very remarkable species of Exocarpus (a genus belonging to 

 this tribe,) which bears its flowers upon the margins of dilated foliaceous 

 branches, analogous to those of Xylophylla. I refer Nyssace* to this, with- 

 out any doubt. According to Jussieu, who is the only botanist that has 

 noticed that tribe, it contains but the single genus Nyssa, differing from Elae- 

 agnea? in its inferior ovarium, albuminous pendulous seed, and superior radicle. 

 It is more nearly allied to Santalacea? ; but its ovarium contains, instead of 

 three ovules adhering to a central placenta, one only, which is pendulous, and 

 its embryo is not cylindrical, but has enlarged foliaceous cotyledons. It has been 

 long since remarked by Mr. Brown, that Anthobolus and Exocarpus differ 

 from Santalacere in having a superior ovarium : Jussieu, in his last observa- 

 tions upon this tribe, does not absolutely separate those genera, but he suggests 

 the possibility of their forming a new family along with Cervantesia of the 

 Flora Peruviana. 



Geography. Found in Europe and North America, in the form of little 

 obscure weeds ; in New Holland, the East Indies, and the South Sea Islands, 

 as large shrubs, or small trees. 



Properties. Sanders-wood is the produce of Santalum album. In India 

 it is esteemed by the native doctors as possessing sedative and cooling 



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