336 



MORINGACEiE. 



[Hypogynous Exogens. 



Order CXV. MORINGACEtE.— Moringads. 



Moringese, R. Brown in Denham,p. 33. (1826) ; 

 S., 4. 203. (1835) ; EncU. Gen. p. 1321. ; 



Bai-tl. Ord. Nat. 425. (1830) ; Decaismin Ann. Sc. N. 

 Meisn. Gen. p. 78.; Wight and Illustr. 1./. 75. 



Diagnosis. — Violal Exogens^ loith a many-leaved calyx, perigynotis petals and stamens, 

 l-celled anthers, stipitate consolidated s-iliquose fruit, and exalbujninous seeds. 



Trees, ^^'ith 2- 3- pinnated leaves, whose leaflets very readily drop off, and thin, decidu- 

 ous, coloured stipules. Flowers u-regular, white, in loose panicles. Sepals 5, petaloid, 

 nearly equal, deciduous ; the tube lined 

 with a fleshy disk ; aestivation shghtly 

 imbricated. Petals 5, A-isibly unequal, the 

 uppeiTUOst of which is ascending. Stamens 

 8 or 10, arising from the top of a disk 

 lining the tube of the calyx ; 5 opposite 

 the sepals, sometimes sterile ; filaments 

 shghtly petaloid, callous and hairy at the 

 base ; anthers simple, l-celled, with a 

 thick convex connective. Ovary stipitate, 

 superior, l-celled, with 3 parietal placentae 

 bearing numerous suspended anatropal 

 o^^lles ; style filiform, terminal, obliquely 

 recurved ; stigma simple. Fruit a long 

 pod-hke capsule, with 3 valves, and only 

 1 cell ; the valves bearing the seeds along 

 their middle. Seeds numerous, half buried 

 in the fungous substance of the valves, 

 sometimes winged ; embryo amygdaloid, 

 without albumen ; radicle straight, supe- 

 rior (turned to the hilum), very small ; 

 cotyledons fleshy, plano-convex. 



This is a httle group of small trees, with 

 an appearance so peculiar that one hardly 

 knows with wiiat to compare them. It 

 however seems generally admitted that 

 they resemble some plants of the Legu- 

 muious Order ; and it is to the vicinity of 

 those that all Botanists, except myself, 

 seem agreed in referring them, moved 

 thereto by their pinnated leaves, with 

 glands between the leaflets, declinate de- 

 candrous perigjTious stamens, and pod-like 

 fruit. De Candolle, who did not overlook 

 the anomalous structure of Moringa as a 

 Leguminous plant, accounted for the com- 

 pound natiu'e of its fruit upon the suppo- 

 sition, that although vmity of carpels is the 



normal structure of Leguminosse, yet the presence of more ovaries than 

 one, in a few instances in that Order, explained the constantly trilocular 

 state of that of ^loriuga. It has, however, always seemed to me that 

 the resemblance which Botanists have found with the Leguminous Order 

 are trifling, while the discrepancies are of the first importance. For ex- 

 ample, the habit of the plant consists in a doubly pinnated fohage, which 

 would do as weU for Roseworts, or Citronworts, or Rueworts ; the 

 declinate stamens may be found in Rueworts, Milkworts, Capparids, 

 and many others ; and as to the pod-like form of the fruit, it is not 

 worth a thought. The objections are, that the sepals are of the same 

 textm-e as the petals, the anthers l-celled, the ovary composed of 3 car- 

 pels which have not the power of tm'ning inward then* sides so as to form 

 dissepiments, and that the attachment of the carpels is strictly parietal. 

 It is true that the latter cu'cumstance will not be so much at variance 



Fig. CCXXIX. — 1. Moringa pterygosperma ; 2. its fruit ; 3, the section of a flower of M. aptera 

 its anther ; 5. a section of its seed.— JVight and Decaisne. 



