RUTALES.] 



ANACARDIxVCE^. 



465 



Order CLXXIV. ANACARDIACE^.— Anacards, 



OR 



Terebinths. 



Terebinlaceae, Juss. Gen. 368. (1789) in parL—Cassuviess or Anacardieas, Bromi in Congo, 431. (1818) ; 

 Bartl. Ord. Nat. p. 395. (1830).— Terebintacese, Kunth in Ann. des Sc. Nat. 2. 333. (18241. trib. 1 

 and 2. DC. Prodr. 2. 62. S^c. (1825) ; Juss. Diet, des Sc. Nat. v. 53. (1828) ; Arnott in Encycl. 

 Britt. p. 106. (1832).— Spondiacese, Kunth in Ann. Sc. Nat. 2. 362. (1824) : Martins Conspectus, No- 

 268. (1835) ; Ed.pr. Ixxxi. ; Wight Itlustr. 1. t. 76. 



Diagnosis. — Rutal Exogens, with apocarpous fruity and a single ovule rising hy a cord 

 from the base of the cell. 



Trees or slirubs, ^^ith a resinous, gummy, caustic, or even milky juice. Leaves alter- 

 nate, simple, or ternate or unequally pinnate, without pellucid dots. Flowers teinninal 

 or axillary, with bracts, commonly $ ? ^y abortion, sometimes absolutely so. Calyx 



Fig. CCCXXIV. 



usually small and persistent, with 5, or occasionally 3-4, or 7 divisions. Petals equal in 

 number to the segments of the calyx, perigynous, (occasionally wanting), imbricated m 

 aestivation. Stamens equal in number to the petals and alternate with them, or twice 

 as many or even more, equal or alternately shorter, or partly sterile ; filaments distinct, 

 or in the genera without a disk cohering at the base. Disk fleshy, amiular or cup- 

 shaped, hypog}Tious, occasionally wanting. Ovary single, very rarely 5 or 6, of which 

 4 or 5 are usually abortive, superior, (very rarely inferior), 1-celled ; styles 1 or 3, occa- 

 sionally 4, sometimes none ; stigmas as many ; o^'^lle solitary, amphitropal or half anatro- 

 pal, attached to the bottom of the cell by a cord, which is either free or adherent to the 

 angle of the cell, so that the ovules not uncommonly appear pendulous. Fruit inde- 

 hiscent, most commonly dinipaceous. Seed without albumen ; radicle either superior 

 or inferior, but always directed towards the hilum, sometimes curved suddenly back; 

 cotyledons thick and fleshy, or leafy. 



The Order called Terebintacea3 by Jussieu and other Botanists has been broken up 

 by Brown and Kunth, but preserved entire by De CandoUe, Arnott, and others. As 

 now limited the Anacards are distinctly known by their seeds hanging from the end of a 

 thread which rises up from the base of the carpels, which in general are solitary, or at least 

 quite distinct, and are sometimes, when ripe, placed at the end of an excessively enlarged 

 disk, as in the Cashew-nut itself. Melanorrhoea is remarkable for its indefinite stamens, 

 and especially for its hj^ogynous petals becoming enlarged, foliaceous, and deep red as 

 the fruit advances to matvu-ity. 



There is m tropical countries a genus called Spondias, whose fruit is eaten under the 

 name of Hog-plums, which genus it has been proposed to erect mto an Order called 



Fig. CCCXXIV.— Pistacia atlantica. 1. ^ flowers; 2. an ovary ; 3. the same cut open to show 

 the OAule ; 4. a ripe fruit opened to show the seed ; 5. a cross section of the embryo ; 6. ^ flowers. 



II n 



