ECHIALES.] 



EHRETIACE/E. 



653 



Order CCLI. EHRETIACEiE.— Ehretiads. 



EhretiacesD, ^fart^lls N. G. ct Sp. 2. ISfi. (1828) ; Miirtius Conspixtiix, No. 120. ; Endl. Gen. p. 645 — 

 Heliotropicea;, Id. 2. 75. ct 138. (1828).— Asperifoliae, b. Heliotropiacese, Jd. Conspectus, No. 118. 

 (1835).— Borraginefe, Ehretieae, and IleliotropeEe, Al}}h. DC. Frodr. 9. 4C7. 



Diagnosis. — Echial Exogens, with regular symmetrical flozcers, 5 stamens, 4 conjluent nuts, 

 a nal'ecl stigma, and circinate inflwescence. 



Trees or shrubs, or herbaceous plants, with a har.sh pubescence. Leaves simple, 

 alternate, without stipules. Flowers gyrate. Calyx inferior, 5-partecl, imbricated in 

 aestivation . Corolla monopetalous, tubular, with 

 as many segments of its limb as the calyx, with 

 an imbricated aestivation. Stamens alternate 

 with the segments of the corolla, and equal to 

 them in number, arising from the bottom of 

 the tube ; anthers innate. Ovary seated in an 

 annular disk, 2- or more-celled ; .style terminal ; 

 stigma simple, 2-lobed ; ovules suspended. 

 Finiit drupaceous, with as many seeds as there 

 are true cells of the ovary. Seed suspended, 

 solitary ; testa simple, thin ; embryo in the 

 midst of thin fleshy albumen, or without any ; 

 radicle superior ; cotyledons plano-convex. 



A branch of the old Boragineae, distinguished 

 by a terminal style proceeding from the apex 

 of a perfectly concrete ovai-y of 4 cells, a bac- 

 cate fruit, and seeds furnished with thin fleshy 

 albumen. The Order is re-combined with 

 Borageworts by Alph. De Candolle, but it 

 seems sufficiently characterised by its concrete 

 carpels, and the presence of a small quantity of 

 albumen. The separate, not separable, nuts 

 of Borageworts are so peculiar, notwithstanding 

 that Cerinthe has them combined in pairs, that 

 a real objection seems to exist to the disregard 

 of so good a mark, by the combination with 

 them of these concrete-finiited Elu*etiads. 



Most of them are tropical trees or shrubs, natives of either hemisphere. A few occur 

 in the south of Europe and the southern States of America ; but none appear fm'ther to 

 the north than the parallel of 45". 



The root of Ehretia buxifolia is reckoned in India one of those medicines which assist 

 in altering and pmnfjdng the habit in cases of cachexia and venereal affections of long 

 standing. Tiaridium indicum is represented to be an astringent, and is used to cleanse 

 ulcers, or to allay inflammation, Martins says with undoubted advantage ; Toumefortia 

 umbellata has a similar application in Mexico, where it is even regarded as a febrifuge ; 

 and it is to be observed that the leaves of Heliotropium europseum were formerly used 

 in the same way as Tiaridium. Some Ehretias bear eatable drupes. The deUcious 

 odour of the Peruvian Heliotrope is known to everybody. 



Fig. CCCCXXXVII. 



I. TOURNEFORTE.'E. - 



Seeds vfith albumen. 



Ehretia, Linn. 



Beurreria, Jacq. 



Bouerreria, P. Br. 



Carmona, Cav. 



Luirostylis, Don. 

 Menais, Ltejl. 



Cortesia, Cav. 

 Amerina, DC. 

 Rhabdia, Mart. 

 Touraefortia, R. Br. 



Messerschmidtia, L. 



Arguzia, Amm. 



Piitonia, Kunth. 

 Rotala, Lour. 



GENERA. 



Coldenia, Linn. 



Tiquilia, Pers. 

 Halgania, Gaudich 



Heliotropium, Linn. 

 Piptoclaina, Don. 

 Tiaridium, Lehm. 

 JIdiophytum, DC. 

 II. Heliotropk/eI — I Schohcra, Scop. 



Seeds without albumen. ' Pentacarya, J>C. 

 Schleidenia, £«d^ | Euploca, iV'»«. 



Prcslea, Mart;. 



Numbers. Gen. 14. Sp. 207. 



CordiacecB. 

 Position. — Boraginacese. — EnRETiACEiE. — Verbenacere. 



Fig. CCCCXXXVII.- Rhabdia \yc\o\Ae%.— Martins. 

 section of the ovary ; 4. a perpendicular section of a seed. 



1 . its flower ; 2. the corolla opened j 3. a cross 



