TEKNSTRCEMIACE^, 



SILVA OF NORTH AMJ^RICA, 



39 



GOEDONIA. 



Flowers solitary, regular, perfect ; sepals 5, hypogynous, unequal, imbricated; pet- 

 als usually 5, hypogynous, imbricated ; stamens pentadelphous or united into a tube. 



Capsules dcliiscent ; seeds exalbuminous. 



Gordonia, Ellis, Phil. Trans. Lx. 518, t. 11. — Linnaeus, 

 Mant. 556. — A. L. de Jussieu, Gen. 275. — Cambessedes, 

 MSm. Mus. Paris, xvi. 408, t. 16, B. — Endlicher, Gen. 

 1022. — Meisner, Gen. 41. — Gray, Gen. III. i\. 1^1. ~~ 

 Eentbam & Hooker, Gen. i. 186. — Baillon, Hist. PI. iv. 



252. 



Pranklinia, Marshall, Arbust. Am. 48. 



Lacathea, Salisbury, Parad. Lond. No, 56. 



Polyspora, Sweet, Hort. Brit. 61. 



Carria, Gardner, Calc. Jour. Nat. Hist. vii. 7. 



Antheischima, Kortlials, Verh. Nat. Gesch. Bot. 137, t. 27. 



Dipterospermuin, Griffith, Notul. ix. 564. 



Trees or shrubs, with watery juice. Leaves ample, alternate, pinnately veined, entire or crenate, 

 exstipulate, sempervirent or membranaceous. Flowers long-peduncled or snbsessile, soKtary in the axils 

 of the leaves, or collected at the ends of the branches. Calyx with two to five caducous bracts below the 

 flower ; sepals rounded, concave, coriaceous, graded from the bracts to the petals, persistent. Petals 

 (rarely six or indefinite) alternate with the sepals, free or often slightly united with each other at the 

 base and mth the clusters of stamens, obovate, concave, white or rarely rose-colored, deciduous. Sta- 

 mens indefinite, the clusters opposite the petals ; filaments short and united at the base into a fleshy cup 

 adnate with the base of the petals, or long and inserted directly on the petals; anthers inserted near 

 their base, versatile, introrse, two-celled, the oblong cells opening longitudinally. Ovary sessile, three 

 to five or rarely six-ceUed ; style elongated, erect, simple, the stigmatic apex spreading ; ovules anatro- 

 pous, four to eight in each ceU, pendulous in two series from the inner angle, collateral. Capsule 

 woody, oblong or subglobose, five-celled, loculicidally five-valved, with a persistent axis angled by the 

 projecting placentas. Seeds two to eight in each cell, pendulous, flat or compressed, the woody testa 

 produced upwards into an oblong mng (rarely obsolete). Embryo mostly straight or oblique, with 

 ovate flat or crumpled cotyledons ; the short radicle superior.^ 



The genus Gordonia is confined to the south Atlantic states in North America, and to tropical 

 Asia. Ten species are described ; two are American, six occur in India ^ and the Malay penmsula and 

 one in southern China.^ Gordonia excdsa^ is common to the Indian and Malay penmsulas and the 

 East Indian islands, where a second species occurs.^ . ■ , • 



Gordonia has few economic properties. The bark of the American G. Lasianthus is rich m tanmn, 

 and has been locally used in tanning leather. The wood of G. oMusa, a fine tree of the mountain 

 forests of India, is manufactured into lumber and used for doors, rafters, and beams. 



^ The genus has been divided into two sections : — 



1. Eugordonia, with short fllainenta rising from the partly free 

 summit and inner face of the thickened lohes confluent at the base 

 into a fleshy cup, and a capsule pointed with the base of the short 

 style, the valves entire, with four, or by abortion two, winged seeds 

 in each celh 



2. Franklinia, with long filaments connate with the base of the 

 petals ; an elongated deciduous style ; a capsule loculicidally five- 

 valved from the obtuse apex to the middle, and septicidally five- 

 valved from the base ; and six to eight, or by abortion fewer seeds 



in each cell, their loose testa hardly produced into a whig. (Gray, 



Gen. III. ii. 103.) 



2 Thwaites, Enum. PL Zeyl 40. - Hooker, f. Fl. Brit. Ind. i. 291. 



s Gordonia anormla, Sprengel, Syst. lii. 126. - Bentham, Fl. 

 H^^„^ 29. -Forbes & Hemsley, Jour. Linn. Soc. xxui. 80 (Camel- 

 lia axillaris, Boi. Reg. t- ^ - Bot. Mag. i. 2(H7. - Polyspora ax- 

 illaris, Sweet, Hort. Brit. 61.-I>on, Gen. Syst. i. 574). 



4 Blame, Bijdr. ih. 130. -Miquel. Fl. Ned. Ind. .. 489. 



5 Gordonia acuminata, Miquel, Fl. Ned. Ind. i. 489. 



6 Beddome, Fl. Syl S. Ind. t. 83. The wood is described " as 



