171. THYMELAEACEAE — I72. ELAEAGNACEAE — I73. LYTHRACEAE 383 



Fruit dry. — Species 7. South Africa. Some species yield dyes or serve 

 as ornamental plants Passerina L. 



16. Disc h3^pogynous, consisting of 1—4, usually 4, free or partly united, 



narrow, almost thread-shaped scales. Calyx-tube long ; segments 

 deciduous. Ovary hairy. Shrubs or trees., Flowers in terminal 

 racemes or spikes, hermaphrodite. — Species i. Naturalized in the 

 Mascarene Islands. Ornamental plant. . . . Wikstroemia Endl. 

 Disc minute and ring-shaped, or wanting 17 



17. Fruit a drupe. Flowers hermaphrodite. Calyx-tube long. Stigma large. 



Shrubs or trees. Flowers in heads, racemes, or panicles. — Species 4. 

 North Africa. Poisonous plants yielding bast-fibres, tanning and 

 dyeing materials, and medicaments ; they also serve as ornamental 



plants Daphne L. 



Fruit a nut. Disc none. Ovary short-stalked. Herbs, undershrubs, or 

 shrubs. Leaves alternate. Flowers solitary or fascicled, axillary. — 

 Species lo. North Africa. Some species are used as medicinal or 

 fibre-plants Thymelaea Endl. 



FAMILY 172. ELAEAGNACEAE 



Shrubs or trees, covered with scaly hairs. Feaves alternate, entire, without 

 stipules. Flowers in axillary fascicles or racemes, 4-merous, very rarely 5 — 8- 

 merous, hermaphrodite or polygamous. Calyx white or yellow within, valvate 

 in bud. Petals none. Stamens perigynous, as many as and alternate with the 

 sepals. Filaments very short. Anthers attached at the back, opening by 

 longitudinal slits. Ovary superior, but tightly enclosed by the concave re- 

 ceptacle, i-celled, with a single erect and inverted ovule. Style simple, long ; 

 stigma entire, capitate. Fruit a nut enclosed by the succulent calyx-tube. 

 Seed with a hard coat and scanty albumen or without albumen ; embryo 

 straight, with a minute radicle and thick, fleshy cotyledons. 



Genus i, species 2. Naturalized in North Africa and the Island of Mauritius. 

 Ornamental plants yielding timber and medicaments. " Oleaster." 



Elaeagnus L. 

 SUBORDER MYRTINEAE 

 FAMILY 173. LYTHRACEAE 

 Leaves entire, usually stipulate. Flowers 3 — 8-merous, hermaphrodite. 

 Sepals valvate in the bud. Petals inserted at the throat of the calyx, usually 

 crumpled in the bud, sometimes absent. Stamens nearly always inserted below 

 the petals. Anthers fixed by the back. Ovary superior, completely or in- 

 completely 2 — 6-celled. Ovules numerous in each cell, attached at the inner 

 angle, ascending, inverted, with ventral raphe. Style simple or wanting ; 

 stigma entire or 2-lobed. Fruit dry. Seeds exalbuminous ; embryo straight. 

 — Genera 12, species 90. (Plate no.) 

 I. Partitions of the ovary incomplete above ; placentas not continuing into 

 the style. [Tribe LYTHREAE.] 2 



