104 



are considered, in India, deobstruent, diuretic, and healing. The leaves are 

 very bitter, and a good stomachic. Jiinslie, 2. 151. Some other species, par- 

 ticularly Ph. urinaria, are powerful diuretics. The fruit of the Phyllanthus 

 Emblica is frequently made into pickle ; it is acid, and, when dry, very astrin- 

 gent. Ibid, 1. 240. The bruised leaves of Phyllanthus Conami are used for 

 inebriating fishes. Aubl. 928. The boiled leaves of Plukenetia corniculata 

 are said to be an excellent potherb, for which purpose it is cultivated in Amboyna. 

 Rumph. The purgative quality of Ricinus, the Castor oil plant, is well known ; 

 the root is said to be diuretic. The juice of Sapium aucuparium is reputed poison- 

 ous. A case is mentioned by Tussac (Journ. Bot. 1813. 1. 117.) of a gardener 

 whose nostrils became swollen and seized with erysipelatous phlegmasis, in con- 

 sequence of the fumes only of this plant. The root of Tragia involucrata is 

 reckoned by the Hindoo doctors among those medicines which they conceive 

 to possess virtues in altering and correcting the habit in cases of cachexia, and 

 in old venereal complaints attended with anomalous symptoms. Jiinslie, 2. 62. 

 There is reason to believe that the timber imported from the coast of Africa, 

 under the name of African Teak, belongs to some tree of this order. From a 

 species of a tree, stated by Mr. Brown to be an unpublished genus, it is said 

 that a substance resembling caoutchouc is procured in Sierra Leone. Congo, 

 444. 



Examples. Euphorbia, Croton, Buxus, Jatropha. 



LXXXIX. RESEDACEiE. The Mignonette Tribe. 

 Resedaceje, Dec. Theor. ed. 1.214. (1813)? Lindl. Synops. 219.(1829.) 



Diagnosis. Apetalous dicotyledons, with indefinite ovules, a 1-celled ova- 

 rium with parietal placentae, dehiscent fruit, irregular flowers partly sterile, and 

 a reniform embryo. 



Anomalies. 



Essential Character. — Florets included within a many-parted involucrum, neuter on 

 the outside, perfect in the centre. Calyx 1-sided, undivided, glandular. Stamens of the 

 sterile florets linear, petaloid. Stamens of the fertile florets perigynous, definite ; filaments 

 erect; anthers 2-cellcd, opening- longitudinally. Ovarium sessile, 3-lobed, 1-celled, many- 

 seeded, with 3 parietal placenta;. Stigmata 3, glandular, sessile. Fruit dry and membranous, 

 or succulent, opening at the apex. Seeds several, reniform, attached to 3 parietal placenta;; 

 embryo taper, arcuate, without albumen ; radicle superior.— Herbaceous plants, with alternate 

 leaves, the surface of which is minutely papillose ; and minute, gland-like stipulee. 



Affinities. The character which is here assigned to Rcsedaceae is in 

 conformity with an opinion I published some years ago, that the part called 

 calyx by botanists is an involucrum, the supposed petals neutral florets, and 

 the disk or nectary a calyx surrounding a fertile floret in the middle. The 

 reasons I assigned for this opinion were, firstly, " That there is a difference in 

 the time of expansion of the neutral florets and of the stamens of the fertile 

 one ; the former being quite open in very many capitula, before one anther of 

 the latter has burst in a single flower. Secondly, That there is an evident ana- 

 logy between the appendages of the neutral florets and the stamens of the per- 

 fect florets ; inasmuch as in Reseda odorata those of the upper sterile florets 

 are nearly of the same number as the real stamens ; because in Reseda alba, 

 and some others, in which a union of filaments takes place in the perfect floret, 

 there is a corresponding but more complete union of the sterile appendages ; 

 and because occasionally in Reseda odorata, stamens are changed into bodice- 



