CORTUSALES.] 



MYRSlNACEyE. 



CA7 



Fig. C'CCC'XXXiV. 



Order CCXLVIII. MYRSINACEiE.— Ardisiads. 



Ophiosperma, Vent. Jard. Cels. 86. (180(i).— Myrsineae, R. Brown, Prodr. 532. (1810) ; Aug. de St. 

 Hilaire, Ann. Sc. Nat. n. s. v. 193; Endl. Gen. clvii. ; Meisncr, p. 2.52. — Ardisiaceae, Juss. Ann. 

 Mus.XV. 350. (1810) ; Barll. Ord. Nat. 163; Alph. DC. in Linn. Trans. 17. 100.— Myrsinaceae, 

 Ed. Pr. cLsx. (18361 ; Alph. DC. Prodr. 8. 75.— Theophrastacea?, Alph. DC. Prodr.8. 144. 



Diagnosis. — Cortusal Exoyens, with stamens opiiosite the petals, Indchiscent drupaceous 

 fruit, and woody stem. 



Trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate, undivided, serrated or entire, coriaceous, smooth ; 

 stipules ; sometimes under-shrubs, with opposite or ternate leaves. Inflorescence in 

 umbels, corymbs, or panicles, 

 axillary, seldom terminal. Flow- 

 ers small, white or red, often 

 marked with sunken dots or 

 glandular lines. Flowers or 

 occasionally ^ $ . Calyx 4- or 

 5-eleft, persistent. Corolla 

 monopetalous, hypogj-nous, 4- 

 5-cleft, equal. Stamens 4-5, 

 opposite the segments of the 

 corolla, into the bases of which 

 they are inserted ; filaments 

 distinct, rarely connate, some- 

 times wanting, sometimes .5 

 sterile petaloid alternate ones ; 

 anthers attached by their emar- 

 ginate base, with 2 cells, dehis- 

 cing longitudinally. Ovary 



free, or partially adherent, with a smgle cell and a free central placenta, 

 immersed a definite or indefinite number of campuhtropal ovules ; style 1 

 short ; stigma lobed or undi\dded. Fruit fleshy, mostly 1 -seeded, sometimes 2- 00- 

 seeded. Seeds angular or roundish, vnth a hollow hilum and a simple integument ; 

 albumen abundant, honiv, of the same shape as the seed ; embryo taper, usually curved, 

 lying across the hilum when the seed is solitary or inferior, and touchmg the foramen 

 when the seeds are numerous and lateral ; cotyledons short. 



The arborescent habit, fleshy fruit, and socketted placenta are the only circumstances 

 to be rehed upon m distinguishing this Order from Primworts, and even the latter is not 

 of great value, as is shown at p. G44. Bro\vii. remarks that the Order is related to Sapo- 

 tads through Jacquinia, and to Primworts through Bladhia. Labisia is a very remark- 

 able plant, with the habit of a Pothos, and an induplicato-valvatc corolla. Embeliese 

 are polypetalous. Meesa is to other Ardisiads what Samolus is to other Pnmworts. 

 Mr. Arnott remarks to me that in some genera he finds dots of diff'ereut shapes mixed 

 as in Samyds. 



Ardisiads « are for the most part inhabitants of climates whose temperature is 

 equable, and they particularly abound in insular localities, as the Islands of the Indmn 

 Ocean, Mam-itius, Boui'bon, and Madagascar. Then- utmost northern limit in the Old 

 World seems to be the Azores, lat. 39^ N., Madeira lat. 32% and Tenerifte ; but m no 

 part of the adjacent continent of Africa do they cross the Northern tropic ; iii Europe 

 they are entu-ely wanting, and in Asia extend only to Japan m north lat. 40 . me 

 Order is very rare in N. America, and especially to the northward of ISIexico, only one 

 species inhabiting the United States, the M. floridana, A. Be C, and that is conhned to 

 the southern state, whose name it bears, lat. 30° N. In the southern homispliere tliey 

 nowhere (except in New Z«kland), are found to the southward of the 3(.tli pai-a lei, ana 

 there in S. Brazil only. In Africa they reach the 33rd, and in Australia tlie 34t i. 

 Their extension into the 53rd degree m the South Pacific Ocean, is hence a reiiiarl<able 

 circumstance, and probably m some measiu-e to be accounted for by the uiutorm tempe- 

 rature which the New Zealand Islands possess ; fiu-ther, they there bear a largei pro- 

 portion to the other dicotyledonous vegetatio n than they do in any other pai't oi tne 



nymenandra Wallichiana ; 



in which is 

 often very 



Fig. CCCCXXXIV.— 1 

 4. seed of Msesa argentea.- 



Msesa ovata; 

 -A. DC. 



2. Ardisia odontophylla ; 3. 



