93 



Properties. The inner bark of the Elm is slightly bitter and astringent, 

 but it does not appear to possess any important quality. The substance which 

 exudes spontaneously from it is called Ulmin ; it is also found in the Oak, 

 Chestnut, and other trees, and according to Berzelius, is a constituent of most 

 kinds of bark. Turner, 700. 



Examples. Ulmus, Celtis. 



LXXX. ARTOCARPE^E. The Bread-Fruit Tribe. 



ArtocabpejE, R. Brown in Congo (1818); Blume Bijdr. 479; and Pholeosanthe-e, 435, 

 both sections of Urticeae (1825.)— Sycoidej:, Link Handb. 1. 292. (1829.) 



Diagnosis. Apetalous lactescent dicotyledons, with flowers in fleshy 

 heads, definite suspended ovula, alternate stipulate leaves, and radicle turned 

 towards the hilum. 



Anomalies. Antiaris has solitary flowers, and the ovarium cohering with 

 the involucrum. 



Essential Character. — Flowers monoecious, in heads or catkins. Calyx with an uncer- 

 tain number of divisions, which are often membranous ; sometimes tubular, or entire. 

 Stamens uncertain in number, either solitary or several, straight. Ovarium 1- or 2-celled, 

 superior, rarely inferior; ovulum suspended; style single, filiform; stigma bifid. Fruit 

 usually a fleshy receptacle, either covered by numerous nuts, lying among the persistent 

 fleshy calyxes, or enclosing them within its cavity ; occasionally consisting of a single nut, 

 covered by a succulent involucrum. Seed suspended, solitary ; embryo inverted, with its 

 radicle pointing to the hilum, straight or curved, with or without albumen. — Trees, shrubs, 

 or herbs. Leaves alternate, toothed or lobed, or entire, smooth or covered with asperities ; 

 stipules membranous, deciduous, convolute in vernation. 



Affinities. The Fig may be taken as the type of this order, which 

 agrees with Urticeae in its apetalous flowers, scabrous alternate leaves, and 

 membranous stipulae ; but which differs in its habit and milky juice, and in the 

 position of the ovulum, which is constantly suspended, not erect. Mr. Brown, 

 indeed, in his Appendix to the Congo Expedition, says that in Artocarpeae 

 " the ovulum, which is always solitary, is erect, while the embryo is inverted 

 or pendulous." But this statement must be an oversight : I have constantly 

 found the ovulum suspended in Artocarpus incisa, Maclura aurantiaca, Ficus 

 Carica, and other species, and in all the Dorstenias, in the whole of which 

 there is a very conspicuous foramen immediately against the point of attach- 

 ment of the ovulum. 



Geography. Natives of all parts of the tropics, particularly of the East 

 Indies ; a few species, in the form of Morus and Maclura, and the cultivated 

 Fig, straggle northwards as far as Canada and Persia. Dorstenias are 

 remarkable for being herbaceous Brazilian weeds, in an order composed other- 

 wise of trees or shrubs. 



Properties. The Fig, the Bread-fruit, the Jack, and the Mulberry, are 

 all found here, and are a curious instance of wholesome or harmless plants in 

 an order which contains the most deadly poison in the world, the Upas of 

 Java ; the juice, however, of even those which have wholesome fruit, is acrid 

 and suspicious ; and in a species of Fig, Ficus toxicaria, is absolutely venom- 

 ous. The juice of all of them contains a greater or less abundance of 

 caoutchouc, and the Cecropia peltata is reported to yield American caoutchouc. 

 But Humboldt doubts whether this is the fact, as its juice is difficult to inspis- 

 sate. Cinch. For. p. 44. The seeds of a plant nearly allied to Cecropia, 



