292 



MANUAL OF BOTANY 



Properties nnd Uses. — They abound usually in a resinous 

 3'ellow juice, which is frequently purgative, as in Vismia 

 guianensis and V. mici'antlia. Other plants of the order, 

 as Hyperieum perforatum and H. Androscemum, have tonic 

 and astringent properties, and Cratoxylon Hornscliucliii is 

 slightly astringent and diuretic. 



Order 76. Outtifer^ or Clusiace^, the Gamboge or 

 INIangosteen Order. — Character. — Trees or shrubs, sometimes 

 parasitical, with a resinous juice. Leaves coriaceous, entire, 

 simple, opposite, exstipulate. Floivers usuall}' perfect, some- 

 times unisexual bj" abortion. Sepals 2, 4, 5, 6, or 8, imbricate, 

 usually persistent, frequently unequal and petaloid. Petals 

 hypogynous, equal in number to, or a multiple of, the sepals, 



sometimes passing b}^ im- 

 FiG. 1065, perceptible gradations into 



them. Staviens usually 

 numerous, rarely few, hy- 

 pogynous, distinct, mona- 

 delphous, or polyadel- 

 phous ; anthers adnate, not 

 beaked, introrse or extrorse, 

 opening by a pore or trans- 

 verse slit, 2-celled or some- 

 times 1-celled. Disc fleshy, 

 or rarely with five lobes. 

 Ovary superior, 1- or many- 

 celled ; style absent ; 

 stigmas peltate or radiate ; 

 Ijlacentas axile. Fruit dehiscent or indehiscent, 1- or many- 

 celled. Seeds solitary or numerous, frequently arillate, without 

 albumen ; embryo large, straight, v/ith minute cotyledons. 



Diagnosis. — Trees or shrubs with a resinous juice, and with 

 opposite, simple, coriaceous, exstipulate leaves. Serials and 

 petals usually having a binary arrangement of their parts ; the 

 former imbricate and frequently unequal ; the latter equal and 

 hypogynous. Stamens almost always numerous ; anthers 

 adnate, without a beak, opening by a pore or transversely. 

 Disc fleshy or lobed. Ovary superior, with sessile radiate 

 stigmas, and axile placentas. Seeds exalbuminous; cotyledons 

 minute. 



Distribntion cmd Numbers. — Exclusively tropical, and 

 especially occurring in moist situations. The larger proportion 

 are natives of South America, but a few occur in Madagascar 



Fig. 1065. Flowering stem ami fruit of the 

 Mangosteeu plant {Garcinia Mangostana). 



