ViOLALES.] 



LACISTEMACF.E. 



329 



Order CXI. LAClSTEMACEiE.— Lacistemads. 



Lacistemese, Martins, N. G. et Sj). PI. 1. 154. (1824) ; Endl. Gen. c. ; Meisn. p. 347. 

 Diagnosis. — Violal Exogens, with amentaceous scaly aj)etalous polygamoics flowers, and 



unilateral stamens. 

 Small trees or shnibs. Leaves simple, alternate, with stipules. Flowers disposed in 

 clustered axillary catkins, p , or (J ? by abortion. Calyx in several narrow divisions, 

 free, covered over by a dilated bract. Corolla wanting. Disk somewhat fleshy, sm*- 

 roiinding the stamens, or in front of them, sometimes hardly 

 visible. Stamen 1, hypogynous, standing on one side of the 

 ovary, w'ith a thick 2-lobed connective, at the apex of each of 

 whose lobes is placed a single cell of an anther, bursting 

 ti-ansversely. Ovary superior, seated in a fleshy disk, 1- 

 celled, with several anatropal oviUes attached to 2-3-parietal 

 placentae ; stigmas 2 or 3, sessile or on a style. Fruit 

 capsular, 1 -celled, splitting into 2 or 3 valves, each of which 

 bears a placenta in its middle. Seed usually, by aboi-tiou, 

 one to each valve, suspended, with a fleshy aril ; integument 

 crustaceous ; albumen fleshy ; embryo inverted, with plane 

 cotyledons and a superior straight cylindiucal radicle. 



Von Martins, the 

 founder of this Order, 

 which he divides from 

 Nettleworts, speaks of it 

 thus : " The pecuhar 

 character consists m the 

 presence of a distinct pe- 

 rianth, while the amen- 

 taceous inflorescence is 

 an indication of an affi- 

 nity with apetalous Orders of a lower gi'ade." The same 

 Botanist indicates its relation to Chloranths in the structm-e 

 of the filament, and to Samyds in that of the fiiiit, " the 

 monadelphous stamens of both which may be perhaps con- 

 sidered a higher kind of evolution of the fleshy disk in the 

 bottom of the flower of Lacistema." In habit the species 

 are said to be something hke Peppers, but more arborescent. 

 To me, however, they look much more hke Casearias with 

 an amentaceous inflorescence, and they might easily be mis- 

 taken for them, when not in flower. They differ, however, 

 from Samyds in their leaves not being dotted, in their scaly, 

 not perfect tubular and half-coloured, calyx, and their cm*ious 

 unilateral stamens. No doubt they ai'e a transition fonn 

 from the more perfect to the diclinous Orders, as is suffi- 

 ciently indicated by their polygamous flowers. 



Natives of low places in woods in equinoctial America. 

 Their properties are unknown. 



Fig. CCXXV. 



GENERA. 



Synzyganthera, Ruiz et Pav. 

 Didymandra, Willd. 



Lacistema, Swartz. 

 Nematospermum, L. C. Rich. 



Numbers. Gen. 2. Sp. 6. 



Position. 



PiperacecB. 

 Lacistemace/e. — Samydacea3. 

 Betulacea. 



Fig. CCXXV.— Lacistema semilatum. — Martins. 

 3. pistil and calyx ; 4. fruit in its state of dehiscence. 



1. amentum in flower; 2. pistil and stamen 



