GUTTIFERALES.] 



MARCGRAVIACE.E. 



403 



Order CXLV. MARCGRAVIACE^.—Margraviads. 



Marcgraviacese, Juss. Ann. Mus. 14. 397. (1809); DC. Prod. 1. 565. (1824) j Endl. Gen. ccxvii. ; 



Meisn, Gen. 44. 



Diagnosis. — GvMiferal Exogens, with simple alternate leaves without stipzdcs, timymraetri- 

 cal flowers, equilateral petals, versatile anthers, sessile stigmas, and innumerahle 

 minute seeds. 

 Trees or shrubs, sometimes climbing and rooting. Leaves alternate, simple, coria- 

 ceous, entire, without stipules. Flowers regular, in umbels, racemes, or terminal spikes, 

 usually fm*nished with bracts 

 which are sometimes bag- shaped 

 or hooded. Sepals from 2 to 7, 

 usually coriaceous and imbri- 

 cated. CoroUa hj'pogynous ; 

 sometimes monopetalous, calyp- 

 triform, entu'e, or torn at the 

 point ; sometimes consisting of 

 five imbricated petals. Stamens 

 usually indefinite, inserted either 

 on the receptacle or on a hypo- 

 gjiious membrane ; filaments 

 dilated at the base ; anthers 

 long, innate, 2-celled, bm'stmg 

 inwards. Ovary single, superior, 

 usually fuiTOwed, 3 or many- 

 celled ; style single ; stigma sim- 

 ple or capitate ; ovules nume- 

 rous, attached to the projectmg 

 lobes of a central placenta, as- 

 cending, with the foramen down- 

 wards. Fruit supposed to be 

 usually succulent ; but also cap- 

 sular, coriaceous, and consisting 

 of several valves which separate 

 shghtly ; dissepiments proceed- 

 mg from the middle of the 

 valves, but not meeting m the 

 centre, so that the fruit becomes 

 1 -celled. Seeds vei'y minute and 

 numerovis, nesthng in pulp, [ob- 

 long, blunt at each end, straight 

 or ulcurved, with the outer skin 

 hardish and netted, with a late- 

 ral hilum. Embryo without al- 

 bumen, incurved, between club-shaped and cylmdrical, with very short obtuse cotyle- 

 dons, and a long conical acute radicle, which is mferior, contiguous to the lulum, and 

 parallel vfith. it. — Endlicher. ] -r.i ^ • 



The true station of this Order is not clearly made out. It approaches Ebonyworts m 

 its monopetalous corolla cut round at the base, in the anthers attached by then- base, 

 and the alternate leaves ; Heathworts in the anthers and disk of the genus Antholoma ; 

 Tutsans and Guttifers in the hypogpious stamens, the polypctalous corolla of some 

 genera, placentation, and numerous seeds ; wherefore Jussieu stationed the Order near 

 Clusia. And this view of the relationship of Margraviads is generally accepted. Indeed, 

 Endlicher says, that the species hardly diff-er from Guttifers except m their alternate 

 leaves and versatile anthers. But we really know very little about them, borne ot t le 

 genera are remarkable for the singular condition of their bracts, which assume tiie 

 appearance of hoods, pouches, or spurs. Turpin has somewhere remai'ked, that sucli 

 bracts offer a clear explanation of t he conversion of a degenerated leaf into an ovule. 



Fig. CCLXXXIV.-Ruvschia amazonica.-3/ar<i»..-l. a calyx and pistjl ; 2. a se^tio" "yj^ ^J^Jjj^ 

 .-?. a seed ; 4. the same, with a portion of the testa torn open to show the cotyledons. [N. B. l^igs. 6 ana 

 4 are reversed in the cut.] 



D D 2 s, 



ccLxxxIv^ 



