156 ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY 



CIIL— AZIMACE^. 



This small order, consisting of a single genus, was first defined as such by the late 

 Mr. George Gardner and myself in the Calcutta Journal of Natural History for April 1845. 

 At that time we considered it amply distinct from Oleaceoe. A more intimate acquaintance with 

 that order, especially the section Chionantheod^ leads me to doubt whether indeed it ought to 

 be retained as a distinct order, a doubt which is strengthened by the discovery of a tetrandrous 

 Oleacea in Miers' new genus Tesserandra. With that genus I am not acquainted, not even 

 with the character, but as Lindley adopts it in his Vegetable Kingdom, I have no doubt of 

 its being correctly referred to that order. 



Character of the Order. Flowers dioicous. Male. Calyx urceolate, 4-cleft. Petals 

 4, hypogynous, equal, aestivation valvate* Stamens 4, hypogynous ; anthers 2-celled, introrse, 

 dehiscing longitudinally, connective shortly produced, apiculate. Ovary abortive, conical. 

 Female. Calyx irregularly 2-4-cleft. Corolla as in the male, stamens rudimentary. Ovary 

 hypogynous, turgid, 2-celled, with a single ovule in each cell. Style none; stigma sessile, 

 peltate, somewhat 2-lobed. Fruit a globose berry, 2-ceIled or rarely, by abortion, 1 -celled ; 

 cells one-seeded. Seeds erect, plano-convex ; testa coriaceous, rugose ; albumen none. Embryo 

 lenticular ; cotyledons fleshy, cordato-auriculate at the base ; radicle inferior. — A rambling 

 shrub with opposite leaves; from the axils of each of which spring two long, divaricate, pungent 

 prickles. Flowers small, axillary, sessile, solitary or aggregated. Fruit a soft, white, very 



juicy berry. 



Affinities. When establishing this order, Mr. Gardner and I expressed our belief that 

 it was intermediate between Oleaceos and Jasminece, but sufficiently distinct from both, con- 

 aidenng it essentially distinct from Oleaceos by its erect not pendulous ovules, and exalbuminous 

 seed (characters to which I now attach less value than I did then) ; and as agreeing with 

 JasminecB m the ovary and baccate fruit, but differing in the floral envelopes. I now view it 

 as very nearly akin to ChionanthecB , in fact as almost referable to that group, the points of 

 distinction so far as I can see, scarcely attaining ordinal value. Lindley places it among the 

 Ihcinece without any doubt, a distribution which its erect ovules and exalbuminous seed pre- 

 vents my adoptmg. Others have placed it in Apocynece, and D. C. suggests, that it may belong 

 to Zo^amace^ which I view as being about equally remote from its real affinities, but both 



l!nn<ff '^'^ f ^- propriety of its present location; while the existence of a tetrandrous 



genus f i es^erandra) in O/eacefp seems to jii=+J^" ^^^ 1- *^ -^ ->- • - _ _n3.-_„^i-. j.v*;„„* 



from that order. M. Bojer of the Mauritius 



Geogeaphical Distribution. India and 



1 



t is not sufficiently distinct 



in which i^WW ^'l™""-^'^^' .in«JiJ and the Cape of Good Hope are the only countries 

 over he ne^i^ul h^nf \""'' "'' n ^^• ^" ^"^'^ '^ '' "^^'^ ^^""^^"t and widely distributed 



Ses LrBurmlh J/S ''"'^^'^ *' '^^. *^°^ ^^' "^^^^ ''^ ^^^ends. Wallich^efers to a 

 species from Burmah ; and Harvey characterizes the genus from Cape specimens. 



have a pecXrLlvv ^1.''' ^M ^' ''T ^""'T ""^^^ ^^' ^'^^- The leaves when bruised 

 an expectorant' L cYs'ef n/p'^^i'' T'^^ ''"?"' ^"^ ^^« J'^'ce is by the natives prescribed as 

 coniobed with man v oth.r t^" "^^' •f^'^^.^^^Pt^^.?' ^«d Humoral Asthma, but as it is always 

 if anris due tHs^urativP 3- '^ V^^^'^'^t *" ^^^ *« ^^^^ extent the benefit derived, 

 employed. • ^'^^ ^''^'°' ^^" P*^^^^^ ^^ ^^e roots is also occasionally similarly 



three^sPe'9!Vere^s''Httl\Z f'""^'' i^" "." ''^'' «^°^^«t>"^ of «"« genus, and two or 

 „ux, ^n l'^^^^ ^^ ""'e room for remarks under this ht^aA i fu„n *t.„_.K-. „L..„f mvaP. f 



species, there is little room 

 ane or two passing remarks 



'^VS'wotk £ Vf°cZr vl f 'T.^'^ ^" ^7«3 ^« *b« Encyclopedia Methodiq 



y work, and of course likely to be in few hands. In 1784 L'Heritier repi 



J 



adopt 



