ROSACEA. 485 



Order ROSACEA. 



Flowers usuully regular, or hermapliroditc. C'ali/x frno, and inclosing the 

 ovaries, or adnato to the ovary, the liiub e(iual or in Chrysohalancm unequal, 4- 

 rarely 5- or more lobed, with tlie addition (in a few genera) of as many external 

 accessory lobes. Disk filling the calyx-tube. Petals as many as true calyx-lobes, 

 equal, or rarely unequal, imbricate. Statnenn indefinite, rarely few, free, inserted 

 with the petals at the base of the calyx-lobes. Ovari/ of 12 or more carpels, usually 

 distinct at the time of flowering, but sometimes combined into a single, 2-o-cellod 

 inferior ovary, with 1 or 2 rarely more ovules in each carpel. Sti/lrs elongate or 

 sessile, stigmas distinct. Fruit various, superior or more or less inferior, sometimes 

 inclosed in the persistent calyx-tube, fleshy or dry, indehisccnt or capsular, or the 

 carpels collected on a fleshy or dry torus. Albumen usually none. Trees, shrubs, 

 or under shrubs with simple or compound leaves. Stipules usually present. Flowers 

 in axillary or terminal cymes or solitary, rarely in simple racemes. 



To this Order belong Apples' {Pi/rus tnalus), Pears {P. communis), the Rowan 

 or Mountain Ash {P. aucuparia), the Hawthorn (Cratayus o.i-i/acanthn), Medlars 

 [Jfespilus germanica), Loquat (Friohotri/a Japonica), Raspberry {Ruhus Idcea), Black- 

 berry {R. fruticosa), Strawberry {Fragaria resea), Almond {Amygdalus communis), 

 Peach [Persica vulgaris), Xectarine (Persiea heris), Apricot {Armeniaca vulgaris), Sloe 

 {Prunus spinosa), Cherries ( Cerasua), and the Queen of flowers, the Rose. 



The above enumeration by no means exhausts the list of fruits and other 

 products we owe to this fine Order. The wood of several Pears and Cherries is 

 close-grained, and in considerable request for wood-engraWng and cabinet-work. 

 Various herbs, once used in medicine, but now neglected, may also be mentioned. 

 Dog-rose (a confection of which still holds a place in the Pharmacopoeia), Agrimony 

 (Agrimonia), Great Burnet {Sunguisorha officinalis), Salad Burnet (Poterium sangui- 

 sorba). Lady's mantle {Alchemilla vulgaris), Avens {Geum urbanum), regarded as 

 distasteful to, and an antidote against evil spirits. Drop-wort [Spiriea filipendula), 

 llead-wort, corrupted in later times to lleadow-sweet (S. ulmaria), used for flavouring 

 beer and wines, and last, and not least in interest, Kousso {Rragera anthelmintica), 

 whose flowers are the best known remedy for tapeworm, and which indirectly, 

 through the mischievous indiscretion and meddling of a missionary, led to the 

 Abyssinian war, one of those hateful and inglorious ejiisodes into which our curiously 

 mixed devotion to God and Mammon is constantly betraying us. 



A. Carpels solitary or united into a solid 2- or more-celled ovarg. Fruit indeluscent. 

 f Ovary superior. Fruit a drupe. Calyx or its lobes usually deciduous. 



CUR YSOBA LANIEJE. 

 Flowers usually irregular. Style basilar. Ovules 2, ascending. Radicle inferior. 



Parixarium, Jussieu. 

 Petals 5 or -I. Stamens perigj-uous. Filaments filiform. Anthers small. Ovary 

 and drupe 2-celled. 



P. (Ptekocauya) SrM vtuaxa, W. Jack. Upper Tenasserim (?). 



Pakastemox. 

 P. UKOPHTLLUS, DC. Kamorta. 



A beautiful tree 30-40 feet high, with a dense round crown. Drupes lovely rosy. 



VRuyjE^j;. 



Flowers regular. Style almost terminal. Ovules 2, suspended. Radicle superior. 



' Tlie name, biitli in ICngHsh an<l Latin, iudicatos that it was knorni to the .\rian tribes before 

 their separation, as botli apple and pomiim liavc reference to the jnicy character of tlie fniit. All pltiil, 

 iciiter-Jruit, apple, auil;>(/«iH»i, from the root oi poluiii, potable, having a cognate sense. 



