220 



Essential Character.— Calyx turbinate, superior, many-toothed. Corolla rofate, 5-0- 

 parted, with a convolute aestivation. Stamens 2, inserted in the throat ; anthers linear, either 

 sinuous or straight, 1- or 2-eeHed. Ovarium inferior, 2-celled, with an indefinite number of 

 ovules ; style simple, declinate ; stigma capitate. Disk pcrigynous. Fruit capsular, 2-celled, 

 many-seeded, with a septicidal incomplete dehiscence. Seeds ascending ; testa polished ; 

 embryo taper, erect, in the axis of fleshy albumen. — Shrubs, trees, or herbaceous plants. 

 Leaves opposite, without stipulre, entire. Flowers solitary, yellow. 



Affinities. Only known from the remarks of Mr. Don, from whom the 

 foregoing has been abridged. He thinks them near Jasmineae, with which 

 they correspond " in the structure and aestivation of their corolla, in their 

 bilocular ovarium, and erect (?) ovula ; and they agree both with them and 

 Syringa in the structure and dehiscence of their capsule. They differ, how- 

 ever, essentially from Jasmines, by having an adherent ovarium, by the pre- 

 sence of a perigynous disk, by the undivided stigma, and, lastly, by having an 

 inferior capsule with polyspermous cells." Mr. Don further thinks they con- 

 nect Jasmineae with Oleaceae. 



Geography. Mexican and Peruvian plants. 



Properties. Unknown. 



Examples. Columellia, Menodora. 



CCIV. JASMINES. The Jasmine Tribe. 



Jasmines, Juss. Gen. Plant. 104. (1789) in part; R. Brown Prodr. 520. (1810). 



Diagnosis. Monopetalous dicotyledons, with regular flowers, a superior 

 2-celled ovarium with erect seeds, 2 stamens, and an imbricate corolla. 

 Anomalies. 



Essential Character. — Calyx divided or toothed, persistent. Corolla monopetalous, 

 hypogynous, regular, hypocrateriform, with from 5 to 8 divisions, which lie laterally upon 

 each other, being imbricated and twisted in aestivation. Stamens 2, arising from the corolla, 

 enclosed within its tube. Ovarium destitute of a hypogynous disk, 2-celled, with 1-seeded 

 cells, the ovules in which are erect ; style 1 ; stigma 2-lobed. Fruit either a double berry or a 

 capsule separable in two. Seeds either with no albumen, or very little; embryo straight; 

 radicle inferior.— Shrubs, having usually twining stems. Leaves opposite, mostly compound, 

 ternate or pinnate, with an odd one; sometimes simple, the petiole almost always having an 

 articulation. Flowers opposite, in corymbs. R.Br. 



Affinities. Formerly combined with Oleaceae, from which they are dis- 

 tinguished by Mr. Brown by their ovules being erect, their seeds with no, or 

 very little, albumen, in the aestivation of the corolla being imbricate, not val- 

 vate, and in the number of its divisions being 5 or more, and consequently not 

 regularly a multiple of the stamens, instead of 4, which is a multiple of them. 

 But Ach. Richard (Ann. des Sc. 350.) endeavours to show that these differ- 

 ences are insufficient. He states, that the ovules of Jasmineae are oiiginally 

 pendulous, as in Oleaceae , but that they subsequently become erect in conse- 

 quence of the growth of the ovarium, whose apex does not elongate, while its 

 sides extend considerably during the growth of the fruit. He says, upon the 

 authority of his father, that albumen does exist in Jasminum and Nyctanthes ; 

 a fact which had been previously mentioned by Mr. Brown in defining the or- 

 ders, but to which that distinguished botanist attached no importance, because 

 only a small quantity was found by him to exist, while it is very abundant in 

 Oleaceae ; and he probably conceived, as I certainly do, that it is the difference 

 of its quantity only which gives the albumen value as a mark of ordinal dis- 

 tinction. I confess it does not appear to me that these remarks lessen the pro- 



