THALAMIFLOR^. 



477 



venting the waste and decay of the body, and any substance that does this 

 necessarily saves food, and is thus indirectly nutritive. 



Natural Order 35. Guttifer^ or Clusiace^. — The 



Gamboge or Mangosteen Order. — General Character. — 

 Trees or shrubs, sometimes parasitical, with a resinous juice. 

 Leaves coriaceous, entire, simple, opposite (fig. 884), exstipulate. 

 Flowers usually perfect, sometimes unisexual by abortion. Sepals 

 2, 4, 5, 6, or 8, imbricated, usually persistent, frequently unequal 

 and petaloid. Petals hypogynous, equal in number to {fig. 884), 

 or a multiple of the sepals, sometimes passing by imperceptible 

 gradations into them. Stamens usually numerous, rarely few, 

 hypogynous, distinct, or monadelphous, or polyadelphous ; 

 ardhers adnate, not beaked, introrse or extrorse, opening by a 

 pore or transverse slit, 2-celled, or sometimes 1-celled. Disk 

 fleshy, or rarely with 5 lobes. Ovary superior (fig. 884), 1 or 

 many-celled ; style absent ; stigmas peltate or radiate (fig. 884) ; 

 placentas axile. Fruit dehiscent or indehiscent, dry or fleshy, I 

 or many-celled. Seeds solitary ornumerous, frequently arillate, 

 without albumen ; embryo straight. 



Diagnosis. — Trees or 

 shrubs with a resinous 

 juice, and opposite, sim- 

 ple, coriaceous, exstipu- 

 late leaves. Sepals and 

 petals usually having a 

 binary arrangement of 

 their parts ; the foi'mer 

 imbricated and frequently 

 unequal ; the latter equal 

 and hypogynous. Sta- 

 mens almost always nu- 

 merous ; anthers adnate, 

 without a beak, opening 



by a pore, or transversely. Fig. 884. Flowering stem and fruit of the Man- 

 Disk fleshy, or lobed. gosteen Plant (GarcmiaJ/an^ostana). 



Ovary superior, with sessile radiant stigmas, and axile placentas. 

 Seeds exalbuminous. 



Distribution, ^c. — Exclusively tropical, and especially occur- 

 ring in moist situations. The larger proportion of the plants of 

 the order are natives of South America, but a few occur in Ma- 

 dagascar and the African continent. Examples: — Clusia, Mam- 

 mea, Garcinia, Xanthochymus, Cambogia, Calophyllum. There 

 are 32 genera, and 150 species. 



Properties and Uses. — The plants of this order are chiefly 

 remarkable for yielding a yellow gum-resin of an acrid and 

 purgative nature. In many cases, however, the fruits are 

 edible, and are held in high estimation for their delicious flavour. 

 The seeds of some are oily, and some are good timber-trees. 

 The more important plants are as follows ; — 



