'34 



MYRTACE^. 



[Epigynous Exogens. 



Order CCLXXXII. MYRTACE^.— Myrtleblooms. 



Mytti,Ji(SS. Gen. 323. (1789).— Myrteae, Juss. Diet. Sc. Nat. 34. 94. (1825).— Myrtoidese, Vent. Tab. 

 (1799).— Myrtinese, DC. Theorie, Elem. (1819).— Myrtacese, R. Brotcn in Flinders, p. 14. (1814) ; 

 DC. Diet. Class v. 11 ; Prodr. 3. 207 ; Endl. Gen. cclxix. ; Schauer in Linncea, xvii. 235 ; Wight 

 Illustr. 2. 6.— Granateae, Don. in Ed. Phil. Journ. p. 134. (1826) ; DC. Prodr. 3. 3 ; Von Martins 

 H. Reg. Monae. (1829) ; Endl. Gen. p. 1223 ; Wight Illustr. 2. 2. 



Diagnosis. — Myrtal Exogens, with a plurilocular ovary, polypetalous or apetalous flowers, 

 an imbricated calyx, 00 stamens, ohionr/ anthers, and tisuaUy dotted leaves. 



Trees or shrubs. Leaves opposite or alternate, entire, usually with transparent dots 

 and a vein running parallel with their margin. Inflorescence variable, usually axillary. 



Fig. CCCCXC. 



Flowers red, white, occasionally yellow, never blue. Calyx adherent, valvate, 4- or 5- 

 cleft, sometimes falling off like a cap, in consequence of the cohesion of the apex. 

 Petals equal in number to the segments of the calyx, with a quincuncial aestivation ; 

 rarely none. Stamens either twice as many as the petals, or 00, rarely equal to them 

 in number ; filaments either all distinct or connected in several parcels, curved inwards 

 before flowering ; anthers ovate, 2-celled, small, bursting lengthwise. Ovary inferior, 

 1- 2- 4- 5- or 6-celled ; style simple, derived immediately from the placenta ; ovules 

 usually pendulous, or erect and anatropal ; occasionally peltate and amphitropal, 

 always inserted into a central or axile placenta. Fruit either dry or fleshy, dehiscent 

 or indeliiscent. Seeds usually indefinite, variable m form ; embryo mthout albumen, 

 straight or cm'ved, with its cotyledons and radicle distinguishable or blended mto a 

 solid mass. 



A species of Sonneratia is apetalous. Some dotted leaves are alternate. 



One of the most natm'al among the ti'ibes of plants, and the most easily recognised. 

 Opposite exstipulate dotted entire leaves with a margmal vein, are a certain indication 

 of it ; and even where the leaves are alternate the intramarginal vein is usually dis- 

 coverable. This alternation is in some species miiform, but in other instances it is 

 accidental, as in Myrtus communis, which usually has opposite leaves, though, if the 

 plant is killed to the ground by frost they are mostly alternate on the shoots that spring 

 up again. It is closely allied to Roseworts, Lythrads, Onagrads, Myrobalans, and 

 Melastomads, but cannot well be confounded either with them or any other Order. 

 It offers a singular instance of the facility with which the calyx and corolla can take 

 upon themselves the same functions and transformations. In Eucalyptus the sepals 

 are consolidated into a cup-hke lid, called the operculum, and in Eudesmia, a nearly- 



flower ; 2. the same divided vertically ; 3. a stamen ; 



Fig. CCCCXC— Eugenia tuberculata. 1. a 

 4. a ripe fruit ; 5. a leaf with the dots upon it. 



