74 



qualities, and as a valuable medicine in gonorrhoea. It is also employed as 

 a perfume. Jlinslie, 1. 377. The Thesiums are scentless and slightly astrin- 

 gent. Dec. 



Examples. Santalum, Nyssa, Thesium. 



LXV. THYMELJE^. The Mezereum Tribe. 



Thymel^je, Juss. Gen. 76. (1789) ; B. Br. Prodr. 358. (1810)'; Landless Synopsis, 208. (1829.) 



Diagnosis. Apetalous dicotyledons, with .definite pendulous ovula, a single 

 1 -celled superior ovarium, indehiscent fruit, and exstipulate leaves. 

 Anomalies. 



Essential Character. — Calyx inferior, tubular, coloured ; the limb 4-cleft, seldom 5-cleft, 

 ■with an imbricated aestivation. Corolla 0, or sometimes scale-like petals in the orifice of the 

 calyx. Stamens definite, inserted in the tube or its orifice, often 8, sometimes 4, less fre>- 

 quentlv 2 ; when equal in number to the segments of the calyx or fewer, opposite to them ; 

 anthers 2-celled, dehiscing lengthwise in the middle. Ovarium solitary, with one solitary 

 pendulous ovulum; style 1 ; stigma undivided. Fruit hard, dry, and nut-like, or drupace- 

 ous. Albumen none, or thin and fleshy ; embryo straight, inverted ; cotyledons plano-convex ; 

 radicle short, superior ; plumula inconspicuous. — Stem shrubby, very seldom herbaceous, 

 with tenacious bark. Leaves without stipulre, alternate or opposite, entire. Flowers capitate 

 or spiked, terminal or axillary, occasionally solitary. B. Br. 



Affinities. Closely akin to Santalacere, Elsagnese, and Proteacese, from 

 all which they are readily known by obvious characters ; especially from the 

 two latter by the pendulous ovula, and from the former by the inferior calyx. 

 Aquilarine*, placed by Decandolle near Chailletiacea?, among polypetalous 

 orders, differ from Thymelreae chiefly in their 2-valved fruit ; the scales in the 

 throat of several genera of Thymelseas being of the same nature as the bodies 

 wrongly called petals in Aquilarinese. 



Geography. Natives sparingly of Europe, and the northern parts of the 

 world, common in the cooler parts of India and South America, and abundant 

 at the Cape of Good Hope and in New Holland. 



Properties. The great feature of this order is the causticity of the bark, 

 which acts upon the skin as a vesicatory, and causes excessive pain in the 

 mouth if chewed. A decoction of it is said to have been found useful in vene- 

 real complaints. The berries of D. Laureola are poisonous to all animals 

 except birds. Dec. The bark is composed of interlaced fibres, which are 

 extremely tough, but which are easily separable ; in Jamaica a species is 

 found which is called the Lace Bark Tree, in consequence of the beautifully 

 reticulated appearance of the inner bark : cordage has been manufactured 

 from several species. A very soft kind of paper is made from the inner bark 

 of Daphne Bholua, in Nipal. Dec. Prodr. 68. Daphne Gnidium and Pas- 

 serina tinctoria are used in the south of Europe to dye wool yellow. 



Examples. Daphne, Passerina, Struthiola. 



LXVI. HERNANDIEiE. 



HernandiejE, Blume Bijdr. 550. (1825.) 



Diagnosis. Apetalous dicotyledons, with an inferior tubular deciduoug 

 calyx, a single pendulous ovulum, no albumen, lobed cotyledons, and a caly- 

 cine involucelhun to the pistillifcrous or monoclinous flowers. 



Anomalies. 



