382 



SAPINDACE.E. 



[Hypogynous Exogens. 



Order CXXXVl. SAPINDACE^E.— Soapworts. 



Sapindi, J?/**. Gen. 246. (1789).— SapindacesE, Juss. Ann. Mus. 18. 476. (1811) : DC. Prodr. 1. 601. 

 (1824) ; Cambessedes in Mem. Mus. 18. 1. (1829) ; Endl. Gen. ccxxx. ; Wiglit Illuslr. 1. p. 141.— 

 iEsculacese, Ed. pr. Ixii.— Hippocastaneae, DC. Theorie, Ed. 2. 244. (1819) ; Prodr. 1. 597. (1824) ; 

 £■«(?;. Gen. p. 1075.— Castaneaceae, Link Enum. 1. 354. (1821).— Millingtoniese, Jack in Malay. 

 Misc.2.Z2; Hooker Journal, 377.— Millingtoniacese, Wight and Arnott in Ed. Ph.Journ. 15. 

 177. (1833) ; Prodr. Penins. 115. (1834) ; Royle Illustr. p. 139. (1835) ; Wight Illustr. 1. t. 53.— 

 Meliosmeae, Endl. Gen. p. 1074. 



Diagnosis. — Sapindal Exogem, with complete, umymmetncal flotvers, x>etals usually with 



an appendage, anthers opening longitudinally, 3 carpels, and iisually arillate, 



wingless seeds. 



These are for the most part trees of considerable size, or twining shrubs bearing 



tendi'ils, or, though seldom, elimbmg herbs. Their tunber has frequently several 



distinct axes of growth. Leaves alternate, compound, very rarely simple, with or 



without stipules, often marked with lines 

 or pellucid dots. Flowers in racemes, 

 or racemose panicles, small, white or 

 pink, seldom yellow, $-0-^ . Calyx 

 more or less deeply 4-5-parted, or 4-5- 

 leaved, with an imbricated aestivation. 

 Petals 4-5, or occasionally absent, alter- 

 nate with the sepals, hypogpious, some- 

 times naked, sometimes with a doubled 

 appendage in the inside ; sestivation 

 imbricated. Disk fleshy ; sometimes oc- 

 cupj-ing the base of the calyx, regular, 

 nearly entu'e, expanded between the pe- 

 tals and stamens ; sometimes glandular, 

 mcomplete, the glands stationed between 

 the petals and stamens. Stamens 8-10, 

 rarely 5-6-7, very seldom 20, sometimes 

 mserted into the disk, sometimes into the 

 receptacle between the glands and the 

 pistil ; filaments free or combined just 

 at the base ; anthers turned inwards, 

 bursting longitudmally. In the $ there 

 is a very small imdiment of a pistil, or 

 none. Ovary 3-celled, rarely 2-4-celled, 

 the cells contauiing 1, 2, 3, very seldom 

 more, ovules. Style undivided, or more 

 or less deeply 2- or 3-cleft. Ovules 

 anatropal, sessile when sohtary, erect, 

 or ascending, rarely suspended ; when 

 double, the upper ascending, the lower 

 suspended. Fniit sometimes capsular, 

 2-3-valved, sometimes extended at the 

 back into a wing and becoming a key 

 (samara), sometimes fleshy and mdehis- 

 cent. Seeds usually with an aril ; the 

 outer integument cinistaceous or membra- 

 nous, the interior pellucid. Albumen 0. 



Fig. CCLXVII. 



Embryo seldom straight, usually curved, or spii-ally twisted. Radicle next the hilum. 

 Cotyledons incumbent, sometimes combined into a thick mass. 



Tliis Order is composed of a great diversity of species, which assume appearances 

 widely diff"erent from each other ; so that Botanists have not unnatm-ally supposed 

 that it really contains the elements of several distmct Natm-al Orders. Thus the Horse- 

 chesnuts have been separated because of their opposite leaves, and a singular pecuharity 

 of the o-s-ules, wliich are both erect and suspended in the same cell ; and Mehosmese 



Fig. CCLXVII.— Sapindus senegalensis. 1. an expanded flower; 2. a petal; 3. the ovaries before 

 fertilisation ; 4. a vertical section of a ripe drupe, showing the embryo. 



