RUTALES.J 



RUTACE.E. 



469 



Order CLXXVI. RUTACE^.— Rueworts. 



Rutae, Juss. Gen. 296. (1789) in pari,— Rutacese, DC. Prodr. 1. 709. (1824) ; Endlicher Gen, cclii.— 

 Rutese, Adnen de Juss. Rutac^es, 78. (182.5) ; Aug. de St. Ililaire Fl. Bras. Mer. 1. 93. (1825)!— 

 Diosmese, R. Brown in Flinders, (1814) ; Ad. de Jussieu Rutacees, 1. 83. (1825) ; Endlicher Gen. 

 ccli.— Fraxinellea;, Nees and Martins Nov. Act. Bonn. 11. 149. (1823).— Cuspariese, DC Mem Mus 

 9. 141. (1822); Prodr. 1. 729. (1824), a § o/Rutaceae,- ? Cneorese, TF^66 m Lond.Joum.Bot. 1. 254' 

 (1842).— Biebersteiniae, Endl. Gen. 



Diagnosis. — Rutal Exogens, with a few-seeded fruit which finally becomes apocarpous, and 

 separates its pericarp into 2 layers, sessile pendulous ovules, and flowers. 



Trees or slu*ubs, very rarely herbaceous plants. Leaves without stipules, opposite or 

 alternate, simple or pinnate, covered with pellucid resinous dots. Flowers axillary or 

 terminal , regular or u'regular. Calyx 

 in 4 or 5 divisions. Petals either as many 

 as the divisions of the calyx, distinct, or 

 combined into a monopetalous corolla, or 

 occasionally wanting ; aestivation for the 

 most part twisted, very rarely somewhat 

 valvular. Stamens equal in number to 

 the petals, or twice or thrice as many, or 

 even fewer in consequence of abortion, 

 h}^ogynous, very rarely perigynous, placed 

 on the outside of a disk or cup surround- 

 ing the ovary, and either free or combined 

 wth the base of the corolla, or in part 

 abortive. Ovary sessile or stalked, its 

 lobes equal to the number of petals, or 

 fewer ; ovules twin and collateral, or one 

 above the other, rarely 4, seldom more ; 

 style single, occasionally divided towards 

 the base into as many parts as there are 

 lobes of the ovary ; stigma simple or 

 dilated ; ovules usually 2, sometimes 4, 

 partly ascending, partly suspended. Fruit 

 consisting of several capsules, either coher- 

 ing firmly or more or less distinct. Seeds 

 t\vin or soUtary, mth a testaceous integu- 

 ment; embryo with a superior radicle, 

 which is either straight or oblique, and 

 cotyledons of variable form; albumen pre- 

 sent or absent. 



There are two principal divisions in this 

 Order ; the one Rutese proper, which 

 have seeds containing albumen, and a 

 fruit, the sarcocarp of which is said not to 

 separate from the endocarp ; the other 

 Diosmese, whose seeds have no albumen, 

 and whose sarcocarp and endocarp divide 

 into distinct bodies when the fruit is ripe. 

 But Aug. de St. Hilaire (Fl. Bras. 1. 74.) suspects that those two parts are equally 

 separable in Rutese, and that the specimens in herbaria which have been found otherwise 

 were gathered before their fruit was quite ripe. Nevertheless EndUcher preserves the 

 distinction as a mark of two Orders, which supposing it to be valid, is inadmissible ; for 

 if differences in dehiscence are alone to constitute the distinctions of Orders, the term 

 Natui-al Order will no longer have an intelligible meaning. At all events, the difference 

 is very slight, and the absence or presence of a small quantity of albumen can no longer 

 be insisted upon now that so many cases of its absence or presence in the same Order 

 are known ; indeed, Hortia, a Diosmeous genus, has albumen, according to Aug. de 



Fig. CCCXXVI. 



Fig.CCCXXVI.- Eiiostemon myoporoides. 1. a complete flower; 2. the ovarj-, seated in a cup-shaped 

 disk, surrounded by a calyx ; 3. the ripe fruit, separated spontaneously into its component carpels. 



