1 86 RUBIACE^. 



A very large family of some 350 genera and 4,000 species, 

 distributed over the warmer parts of the world. Britain has 

 four genera only, members of one small tribe the StellatcB in 

 which the stipules are not combined and may be divided and 

 are enlarged to equal the leaves, so that at each node there is 

 a whorl of four, six or eight leaves (Madder, Goosegrass, 

 Bedstraw, Woodruff). With the exception of this tribe the 

 family can nearly always be recognised by the four stipules 

 belonging to a pair of opposite leaves being combined into 

 two connecting the leaf-stalks. 



The family is divided into a number of tribes arranged in two main 

 series : those with many seeds to each cell of the ovary (fruit a capsule or 

 berry) and those with one seed only to each cell (fruit splitting into cocci 

 or a drupe). 



Common cultivated plants are species of cinchona (brought 

 here from America for the quinine extracted from the bark), 

 Coffee, IXORA (common in Madras gardens, with bunches of 

 long slender scarlet corollas) and morinda (with the ovaries 

 of several flowers coalescing), muss.^nda, with one calyx lobe 

 much enlarged like a white or yellow leaf, is common on the 

 ghat road below Kodaikanal and Coonoor. 



Leaves six at a node, narrow : stem slender . . Galium. 

 Leaves four at a node, heart-shaped, stalked . . rubia. 



[ Leaves two or three only at a node b 



Flowers in terminal panicles or cymose corymbs . . . c 

 Flowers few in leaf-axils only — shrubs with fetid leaves or 



[ fruit lasianthus. 



J Lobes of corolla valvate in bud d 



^ (Lobes of corolla twisted in bud ; shrubs g 



, r Herbs e 



^ \Shrubs f 



[ Leaves very fetid .... anotis. 



e \ Leaves not fetid : ovules two only, with cap at upper end. 



L KNOXIA. 



Fruit a small capsule, flowers white or tinged with mauve. 



HEDYOTIS. 



Fruit a fiat capsule, broader than long . . ophiorrhiza, 

 y Fruit a black berry : flowers white . . . psychotria, 

 [ Corolla pink ; tube slender : stigmas ultimately separate. . 



j IXORA. 



) Corolla white ; tube short : stipules and lower bracts 



tubular pavetta. 



Corolla white, stout : stigma long undivided : nerves deeply 

 impressed on upper side of leaves .... webera. 



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