392 CYRILLACEiE. Cyrilla. 



Oeder XXXIX. CYRILLACEiE. 



By a. Gray. 



Shrubs or small trees with essentially regular perfect flowers, 5-parted or 

 o-divided calyx and 5, or rarely 4, imbricated or convolute hypogynous sessile or 

 shortly unguiculate petals. Calyx-segments sometimes unequal. Hypogynous 

 stamens 5, alternating with the petals, or 10 in 2 often unequal series, the inner 

 stamens, i. e. those opposite the petals, being shorter ; anthers bilocular, fixed 

 by the middle, introrse, longitudinally or ajiically dehiscent ; pollen very fine, 

 simple. Ovary 2-5-celled ; cells 1-4-ovuled. Fruit in Cliftonia and Costcea 

 indehiscent, in Cyrilla very tardily dehiscent or at least at maturity separable 

 sejjticidally into two parts. Leaves alternate, exstipulate, thickish, entire, 

 cuneate-obovate or oblanceolate. A small order of the S. Atlantic States, the 

 West Indies, and the northern part of S. America, related probably most closely 

 to the Aquifoliacece, but also through the W. Indian genus Costcea exhibiting 

 affinities to the Ericacece. 



1. CYRILLA. Calyx 5-partecl, persistent; the lobes ovate or triangular, acute, imbricated 

 in sestivatiou. Petals 5, distiuct, much longer than the calyx, sessile, the axis thickened 

 toward the base inside, imbricate or convolute in aestivation, spreading in anthesis, decidu- 

 ous. Stamens 5, inserted with the petals underneath the disk ; filaments subulate ; anthers 

 oblong or subsagittate, deeply cleft at the base ; the cells opening longitudinally ; pollen 

 globose-triangular with angles projecting and rounded, nearly as in the Onagracece. Disk 

 hypogynous, entire, adnate to the base of the ovary, sometimes obscure. Ovary ovoid, 

 2-celled, rarely 3-celled, with 2 or 3 anatropous or half-anatropous ovules suspended from 

 the apex of each cell on a filiform pendulous placenta (the rhaphe dorsal) ; style persistent, 

 very short ; stigmas 2, rarely 3, short. Fruit a small and dry 2-celled drupe, cellular-corky 

 at maturity when readily septicidal into two pyrenae ; the cells small and 1-seeded ; testa 

 thin and membranaceous, conformed to the nucleus ; embryo cylindrical, at the micropylar 

 end of the fleshy albumen, and about a quarter of its length ; cotyledons small and terete ; 

 radicle superior. 



2. CLIFTONIA. Calyx very small, 5-lobed, rarely 4-8-lobed, persistent. Petals 5 (rarely 

 4 to 8), distiuct, roundish-obovate with the base contracted into a short claw, strongly imbri- 

 cated in testivation, deciduous. Stamens twice as many as the petals and inserted with 

 them ; those opposite the petals commonly shorter ; filaments dilated below the middle, the 

 dilated portion teruiinatiug in 2 short and rounded teeth or lobes; anthers didymous ; the 

 cells lougituflinally deliiscent ; pollen globular and witli 3 projecting rounded angles (nearly 

 as in Ci/riUa). Disk as in Cip-ill<t. Ovary ovoid-coifical, 3-4-celled, with a single linear 

 and anatropous ovule suspended from the summit of each cell; the rliaphe dorsal; style 

 none ; stigma thick, 3-4-lobed. Fruit dry and cellular-corky, 3-4-angled, the angles extended 

 into narrow wings, 3-4-celled ; seeds solitary, filling the small cells, oblong, with a thin 

 testa, conformed to the nucleus ; embryo in the axis of the fleshy albumen, of nearly its 

 length ; cotyledons very small ; radicle long and slender, superior. 



1. CYRILiIjA, Garden. (Dominico Cyrillo, professor of medicine at Na- 

 ples, murdered in 1799, the author of the now very rare PI. Rar. Reg. Neap.) — 

 Leaves glabrous, reticulate-veiny : flowers small, white, crowded in long and 

 dense virgate racemes which are usually fascicled in the axils of the preceding 

 year ! bracts and adnate bractlets subulate, persistent. — Garden in L. Mant. i. 5 ; 



