80 ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY. 
more in équinoctial America. They, like the other members of the class Colummnzferae, are char- 
acterized by the valvate estivation of their calyx, combined with a polypetalous inferior corolla, 
and inferior stamens, with 2-celled anthers: the leaves are alternate, stipulate, and more or less 
clothed with stellate pubescence. 
In this order trees and shrubs are the predominating forms, but herbaceous plants are also 
met with, two out of five Indian genera referable to the order being such. The leaves are alter- 
nate, simple, petioled, feather-nerved, entire, crenated, toothed or serrated, with two, usually 
deciduous, stipules. The flowers are bisexual, regular, racemose, or corymbose, occasionally 
solitary and axillary. 
The calyx is3—5 sepaled, valvate in @stivation, deciduous; the torus often more or less 
stipitate: the petals inferior, alternate with the segments of the calyx, and equal to them in 
number, occasionally supported on a short claw, furnished with a gland or nectarial pit, 
‘and imbricated in cestivation, rarely wanting. ‘The stamens are numerous, inferior, sometimes 
inserted on the apex of the torus, the filaments cohering at the base. The anthers are oval or 
roundish, 2-celled, opehing interiorly by a longitudinal slit. The ovary is usually stipitate, 
several celled, that is, composed of several united carpels; the styles are also united into one, 
but with as many free stigmas as there are carpels in the ovary. The fruit is either capsular 
or drupacious, several celled, with many or few seeds: the seeds are attached to the central 
angle, sometimes furnished with an arillus, The albumen is fleshy, the embryo erect, the coty- 
ledons foliaceous, and the radicle inferior or rarely superior. 
Arrinitizs, The affinities of this order are the same as the preceding, agreeing with them 
in their valvate cestivation of the calyx, but distinguished by their free stamens, glandular 
disk, ‘and appendages at the base of the petals; the great difference however between the cap- 
sular and many seéded pericarps of Corchorus, and the drupacious ones of Grewia, and some 
others, seem to indicate a want of uniformity of character in an important organ, unfavourable 
to this being received as a well constituted order. With this order Kunth and Bartling unite 
leocarpeae, @ course which has not been followed by other writers, though they are 
very nearly related, differing principally in the latter, having its petals lacerated or fimbriated on 
the margins, and the anthers opening by ‘pores. 
oF wii wae} Chieu ry ok ae: aT teak 4 dibs * ‘ . p 3 ge ai Z 
Grocrapuicat Distrinvtion. The species of this order are very widely distributed, 
pe piel eg 6 etla sa a its affinities in these very remote countries. 7", trilocularis 
ties of 7. angulata, sheesh ed ra scarcely differs in general appearance from some of our varie- 
stamina, tha colly" fo. gn it does in more important particulars, namely, in the number of its 
’ $ of its ovary, and the form of its capsules. Triumfetta cordifolia has a con- 
