RUTALES.] 



OCHNACEiE. 



475 



GENERA. 



Tribe 1. Casteleae. — ; Tribe 2. Ochneac.— 

 Anthers turned outwards. Anthers turned inwards. 

 Seeds inverted, wiUi albu- Seeds erect, without alhu- 



Castela, Turp. 

 Elvasia, DC. 



Gomphia, Schreb. 



Jabotapita, Plum. 

 Ouratea, Aubl. 

 Correia, Velloz. 

 Philonieda, Noronh. 

 Cittorrhynchus, Willd. 



jOchna, Schreb. 



Diporidium, Wendl. 

 ? VValkera, Schreb. 



Meesia, Gartn. 

 Euthemis, Jack. 



Numbers. Gen. G. Sp. 82. 



BosacccB. 

 Position. — Simarubacese. — Ochnace^. — Xanthoxylacese. 

 Geraniacece. 



C0RIARJE.E, {DC. Prodr. 1. 739. 1824 ; Ed. pr. csa.; Endl. Gen. p. 1065 ; Meisner Gen. p. 56.) A few 

 plants inhabiting the South of Europe, Chili, Peru, New Zealand, and Nepal, have been associated by 

 Botanists in a genus of which the following is 

 the character. Shrubs with opposite branches, 

 which sometimes are very long and feeble, often 

 3 on each side, 2 of them being secondai-y to 

 an intermediate principal one. Leaves oppo- 



2 1 4 3 



Fig. CCCXXIX. 



site, simple, ribbed, entire. Buds scaly. Racemes tenninal and axillary. Flowers Q or V " P " o • 

 Calyx campanulate, 5-parted, ovate. Petals 5, alternate with the lobes of the calyx, and smaller than 

 they are, fleshy, with an elevated keel in the inside. Stamens 10, hjijogj-nous, 5 between the lobes of the 

 calyx and the backs of the carpels, 5 between the petals and the joinings of the carpels ; filaments fili- 

 form ; anthers oblong, 2-celled. Carpels 5 (or 6), arranged obliquely round a thickish gj-nobase ; stig- 

 mas 5, long, subulate ; o\T.iles solitary, pendulous, anatropal. Fruits crustaceous, covered over by the 

 membranous sepals and fleshy petals, indehiscent, 1-seeded. Seed pendulous ; albumen none ; embrj-o 



straight ; cotyledons 2, fleshy ; radicle short, blunt, next the hilum. It is very difficult to say what is 



the affinity of this plant. DecandoUe places it, as the tj-pe of a distinct Order, immediately after Och- 

 nads, with which it agrees in ha\ing its ovaries distinct, and surrounding a fleshy axis ; but the stigmas 

 in Coriaria are long, linear, and distinct, with no style, while Ochnads have a single style connecting 

 the carpels and minute stigmas ; the former, therefore, are apocarpous, the latter sjTicarpous. Coriaria 

 is also allied to Rueworts, but diflers from them as it does from Ochnads; and, besides, the carpels 

 are in Rueworts connate. De CandoUe understands Coriaria as apetalous, but I do not see upon what 

 principle, either of stmcture or analogy. In his Essai sur Ics Propriiftes Medicates he referred it to the 

 \icinity of Rhamnads. Jussieu placed it near Malpighiads, and this view has been also taken by 

 Endlicher and others, who consider it as being absolutely a member of that Order. But M. Adrien de 

 Jussieu {Monogr. Malp. \st part, p. 135) justly objects to this upon the double ground that Coriaria has 

 neither the vei^ peculiar ovule of Malpighiads, nor that broken (or spiral) arrangement of parts which 

 pervades the Order in its genuine form ; besides, Malpighiads never have 5 carpels, when in their natural 



state. Coriaria mjTtifolia and ruscifolia are used by dyers for staining black. The fruit is poisonous. 



It is said that several soldiers of the French army in Catalonia were aff'ected by eating it ; 15 bec<ame 

 stupefied, and 3 died. Its leaves have been used to adulterate Senna, and have produced fatal conse- 

 quences, exciting violent fits of tetanus, giving place to apoplectic coma. The French call it Redout or 

 Roudout. Nevertheless, the fruit of Coriaria napalensis is frequently eaten in the north of India without 

 inconvenience, according to Royle, and we learn from Forster that the berries of the New Zealand Cori- 

 aria sarmentosa are greedily sucked by the natives ; the seeds, however, they regard as poisonous. 



Gen. 1. Sp. 8. 



Fig. CCCXXIX.- 1. Coriaria napalensis ; 2. flower of Coriaria myrtifolia without its calyx ; 3. 

 pistil ; 4. a perpendicular section of it. 



its 



