THE " WILD PLUM"" FAMILY, 119 



a thick honey-disc, equal to or twice as many as the 

 petals, free or monadelphous ; carpels, 2 to 5. 

 Fruit — Capsule or berry. 



Anacardiacese. 



The "Wild Plum" Family. 



This order contains 450 species of 40 genera. 

 They consist of trees and shrubs, sometimes with a 

 milky juice. The flowers are small, in clusters and 

 usually unisexual, i.e. having the stamens and pistil 

 in separate flowers. Several have edible fruits, as the 

 Mango. There are 7 genera in South Africa. 



Rhus. — This genus has upwards of fifty species 

 in South Africa ; some are common, as on the slopes of 

 Table Mountain. It bears minute flowers (Fig. 45, I.) 

 and orange-coloured berries the size of a peppercorn. 



Fig. 45, II. is a section of a male flower, showing 

 the thick disc within the stamens and the rudiment of 

 the pistil. (III.) is the diagram, in which the disc is 

 not represented. 



The female flower has no stameps, but a perfect 

 pistil of three carpels, with three stigmas; but the 

 ovary is only one-celled. 



The presence of the remains or rudiment of the 

 pistil in the male flower shows that this unisexual 

 condition has resulted from the separation of the 

 sexes in different trees. 



