ASARALES.] 



SANTALACE.E. 



787 



Order CCCI. SANTALACEiE.— Sandalworts. 



Santalatese, R. Broicn Prodr. 350. (1810) ; Jusx. Did. dcs Sc. Nat. 47. 287 ; Barlling Ord. Nat. 112 ; Endl. 

 Gen. cviii. ; Griffith in Linn. Trans. 18 59.— Osyridex, Juss. iu Ann. Mus. vol. 5. (1802) ; Martiui 

 Conspectus, No. 82. (1835).-Osyrinse, Link Ilandlj. 1. 371. (1829;. 



Diagnosis. — Asaral Exogens, ^vith a l-cellcd ovanj and definite ovules haring a coated 



nmlem. 



Trees or shrubs, sometimes under-shrubs or herbaceous plants. Leaves altcniate, or 

 nearly opposite, undivided, sometimes minute, and resembling stipules. Flowers in 

 spikes, seldom in umbels, or solitary, small. Calyx superior, 

 4- or 5-cleft, half-coloured, with valvate aestivation. Stamens 

 4 or 5, opposite the segments of the calyx, and in.serted into 

 their bases. Ovary 1 -celled, with from 1 to 4 ovules, fixed to 

 a central placenta, and usually near the summit ; style 1 ; 

 stigma often lobed. Fi'uit 1 -seeded, hard and dry, and diiipa- 

 ceous. Albumen fleshy, of the same fonn as the seed ; embryo 

 minute, in the axis, inverted, taper. 



Brown observes (Flinders, 5GI)) that one of the most remark- 

 able chai'acters of this Order consists in its unilocular ovary 

 containing more than one, but always a determinate number of 

 o^^ales, which are pendulous, and attached to the apex of a 

 central receptacle ; this receptacle varies in its figure in the 

 different genera, in some being fiUform, in othei's nearly filling 

 the cax'ity of the ovary. In Santalum itself, however, the 

 ovules are erect, as Griffith showed, and they are said to be the 

 same in Osyris, which is described as being ^ ? . The nearest 

 relationship of Sandalworts is a disputed question. Most 

 Botanists assign them to the neighbom-hood of Daphnads, or 

 Oleasters ; but their mferior ovary, copious albumen, and placen- 

 tation, disagree with both those groups, and their hemiaphrodite 

 flowers also divide them from Oleasters. Endlicher refers them 



to the neighbour- 

 hood of Olax, but 

 the hypogynous sta- 

 mens of that Order 

 forbid a close ap- 

 proximation. Lo- 

 ranths seem to 

 stand in the closest 

 consanguinity, and 

 are principally 



known by their pa- 

 rasitical manner of 

 growth, and their 

 ovules having a 

 truly naked nu- 

 cleus. 



2 a » ■* 



Fig. DXXI. 



The species are found in Europe and North America, in the form of little obscure 

 weeds ; in New Holland, the East Indies, and the South Sea Islands, as lai-ge shnibs, or 



small trees. , . i i ^i *• 



Sandal-wood is the produce of Santalum album; in India it is esteemed by the native 

 doctors as possessing sedative and cooling qualities, and as a valuable medu-ine in 

 gonorrhoea. It is also employed as a perfume. The Sandal-wood of the San.hv.ch 

 Islands is the wood of Santalum Freycinetianum and paiucu alum. Ihc '^'-^vos ot 

 Osyris nepalensis form a sort of tea. An inf usion of Myosc-lulos^blo^igus, the^emm ot tiio 



Fig. PXXT.-l. Leptomeria^cida; 2. a b^ndTmore magnified ; 3. an exrandcd .f"^^" ! ^Ir,;*/"''* • . 

 Fi|. DXXlI.-Theiium pratense.-AVr... 1. a flower ; 2 the same laid opcu ; J. half au unnpe fruit . 

 4. placenta and pair of ovules ; 5. half the ripe fruit and seed. 



3 E 2 



