BiGNONIALES.] 



CRESCENTIACE^. 



673 



Order CCLXI. CRESCENTIACE^.— Crf.pcentiads. 



Crescentiaceae, Gardner in Hook. Journ. 2. 423. (1840).— Crescentinese, DC Rev Bifm p 7 fl838) • 

 Endl. Gen. p. 723; u\fiqi(el in Bot. Zeit. (1844), p. 801 ; Alph. DC. Prodr. 9. 240 



Diagnosis.— -B/^wowtaZ Exogens, with parietal placentcB, succulent hard-shelled fniit, and 

 an amygdaloid embryo with a short radicle. 

 Trees of small size, with alternate 

 or clustered simple leaves without 

 stipules. Flowers growing out of 

 the old stems or branches. Calyx 

 free, undivided, eventually splitting 

 ^nto irregular pieces. Corolla mono- 

 petalous, irregular, somewhat 2-lip- 

 ped, Avith an imbricated aestivation. 

 Stamens 4, growing on the corolla, 

 didynamous, \vith the rudiment of 

 a fifth between the posterior pair, 

 which are the longest ; anthers 2- 

 lobed, bursting longitudinally. Ovary 

 free, surrounded by a yellow annular 

 disk, 1 -celled, composed of an ante- 

 rior and posterior carpellary leaf, 

 with 2 or 4 equidistant pai'ietal pla- 

 centae, which sometimes meet and 

 produce additional cells ; ovules 00, 

 horizontal ; style 1 ; stigma of two 

 plates. Fi'uit woody, not splitting, 

 containing a multitude of large 

 amygdaloid seeds buried in the pulp 

 of the placentae; skin leathery, loose. 

 Embryo straight, without albumen, 

 with plano-convex fleshy cotyledons, 



CCCCLIT. 



and a thick short radicle next 

 the hilum. 



These plants have been gene- 

 rally associated either with Night- 

 shades, which they are quite 

 unhke, or with Bignoniads, from 

 which they differ in their succu- 

 lent fruit, parietal placentae, and 

 wingless seeds. In the two lat- 

 ter circumstances they resemble 

 PedaUads ; but their succulent 

 fruit and large almond-like seeds 

 are dissimilar. Gesnerworts lie 

 doubtless on their borders, for 

 they too have sometimes succu- 

 lent fruit ; but it seems impossi- 

 ble to associate trees with a gi'cat 

 almond-hke embryo and herbs 

 or half-herbaceous bushes, whose 

 minute embryo consists princi- 

 pally of radicle, 



Mr. Gardner thus speaks of 

 the fruit of Crescentia: — " In the 

 economy of its fruit, Crescentia 

 is more closely related to Cyrtan- 

 draceae than to Bignoniacea^ 

 but differs essentially from it in 



CCCCLIII. 



the structure of its calyx, in its four distinct placentae, horizontal, not suspended o\'ules, 



Fig. CCCCLII.— Crescentia obovata. 1. a cross section of its ovary. 

 Fig. CCCCLIII.— Cross section of fruit of Crescentia cucurbitina. 

 X X 



