350 MALPIGHIACE^. Byrsonima. 



Oedee XXX. MALPIGHIACE^. 

 By a. Gray. 



Shrubs or woody climbers, with opposite simple mostly entire commonly stipu- 

 late leaves, regular 5-merous o-lO-androus and tri(rareiy di)-carpellary flowers. 

 Sepals imbricate and petals between imbricate and convolute in the bud, the 

 latter usually unguiculate and penniveined. Ovules solitary in each cell, between 

 orthotropous and anatropous, often uncinate, and ascending on the pendulous 

 funiculus ; micropyle superior. Seeds destitute of albumen ; the embryo curved 

 or coiled, or rarely straight. No dilated hypogynous disk. Commonly some 

 large glands on outside of calyx. A tropical order, of which, however, six genera 

 reach our southern borders. 



* Stamens 1 0, all perfect : styles 3. 

 -)— Fruit wingless. 



1. BYRSONIMA. A pair of thick glands on back of each sepal. Petals with slender claws 

 reflexed in anthesis. Filaments short, monadelphous at base, there bearded. Stigmas 

 acute. Fruit a small 3-celled drupe ; embryo with slender and circinately coiled cotyledons. 



2. MALPIGHIA. A pair of thick glands on back of most or all the sepals. Flowers of 

 preceding, but base of filaments glabrous and stigmas truncate. Drupe containing 3 dis- 

 tinct dorsally 3-5-crested nutlets ; embryo straight, with short radicle and plano-convex 

 cotyledons. 



3. GALPHIMIA. Calyx glandless. Petals spreading, with distinct claws and thickish 

 midrib to denticulate blade. Filaments slender, distinct or nearly so ; anthers oval. Styles 

 filiform ; stigmas minute. Fruit a 3-coccous capsule ; embryo uncinate-incurved. 



-1— -t— Fruit winged, samaroid. 



4. HIRjEA. Glands one or two on back of each sepal. Filaments and styles short. Ovary 

 3-lobed, 3-crested. Samarce 1 to 3 maturing, broadly winged all round the margin ; embryo 

 with short cotyledons uncinate-incurved. 



* * Flowers dimorphous, the more fertile cleistogamous, usually dicarpellary and with 

 glandless calyx ; these with only one or two diminutive stamens ; the normal with 5 or 6 

 monadelphous stamens, two or three of them not rarely deformed and sterile: calyx 8-10- 

 glandular : ovary of 3 lobes or carpels around the base of a single columnar style ; stigma 

 obliquely truncate or depressed-capitate. 



5. JANUSIA. Normal flowers with unguiculate mostly entire petals. Fruit samaroid, 

 winged on the back. 



6. ASPICARPA. Normal flowers with unguiculate and mostly fimbriolate petals, sterile or 

 less fertile than the cleistogamous ; cleistogamous flowers with hardly any style, maturing 

 a single carpel (or sometimes a pair of carpels) into an oblique triangular nutlet, which 

 usually becomes horizontally incumbent on the receptacle and in shape may be likened to 

 the head of a serpent; cotyledons obovate, flattish, incurved. 



1. BYRSONIMA, Rich. (Bvpa-a, a hide; bark or leaves used for tan- 

 ning.) — Rich, in Juss. Ann. Mus. xviii. 481. 



B. llicida, HBK. Shrub, erect, much branched, glabrous : leaves cuneate-obovate, inch or 

 more long, obscurely veined, shining : flowers in short terminal racemes : petals nearly 

 white, changing to rose-color or some to yellow, the blade roniform, equalled by the claw : 

 drupes the size of peas, greenish. — Nov. Gen. & Spec. v. 147; DC. Prodr. i. 580; A. Juss. 

 Malpigh. 40; A. Rich. Fl. Cub. 271 ; Chapm. Fl. 82. Malpighia lucida, Swartz, Fl. Ind. 

 Geo. ii. 852. — Keys of S. Florida. ( W. Ind.) 



