BUTACE^. SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA, 79 



HELIETTA. 



Flowers regular, perfect ; calyx 3 to 4-parted, the divisions imbricated in ^stiya- 

 tion ; petals 3 to 4, imbricated in estivation, hypogynous. Fruit composed of 3 to 

 4 -winged indehiscent eoccules. Leaves trifoliate, persistent. 



■ Helietta, Tulasne, Ann. Set. Nat. ser. 3, vii. 280. — Bentham & Hooker, Gen. i. 301. — Baillon, Hist. PI. iv 477 —En ler 

 Martins Fl. Brasil. xii. 2, 184. ' • K » 



Trees or shrubs, with slender terete branches. Leaves opposite, long-petiolate ; leaflets sessile, obo- 

 vate-oblong, obtuse, entire or crenate, sub coriaceous, glandular-punctate, the terminal much larger than 

 the two lateral. Flowers produced on slender bibracteolate pedicels in terminal or axillary panicles. 

 Sepals slightly united at the base, persistent, much shorter than the oblong concave glandular-punctate 

 petals reflexed at maturity. Stamens inserted under the disk ; filaments shorter than the petals, slightly 

 flattened, glabrous j anthers ovate, slightly cordate at the base, attached on the back below the middle, 

 introrse, two-celled, the cells opening longitudinally. Disk free, cup-shaped, erect, sub corrugated, with 

 a sinuate margin, entire or four-lobed, the lobes entire or crenate and opposite the petals. Ovary 

 minute, sessile, depressed, three to four-lobed, glandular-verrucose or minutely pilose, the lateral lobes 

 slightly compressed ; styles united into a single slender column, crowned by the globose three to four- 

 lobed stigma ; ovules two in each cell, collateral, anatropous. Fruit obconical, composed of three to 

 four dry woody carpels ^vith prominent horizontal wings, separating at maturity into three to four one- 

 seeded indehiscent eoccules. Seed linear, oblong, inclosed in a cartilaginous indehiscent endocarp j testa 

 erustaceous, fragile, black. Embryo axile, surrounded by thin fleshy albumen ; cotyledons straight, 

 obtuse; radicle terete, superior. 



The genus Helietta is widely distributed from the valley of the Rio Grande in Texas to Brazil and 

 Paraguay. Four species are now recognized by botanists. Belietta parvifoUa is peculiar to northeast- 

 em Mexico and the adjacent portions of Texas. Selietta Plmana^ the type of the genus, is a native of 



Colombia. Helietta muUiflora ^ is Brazilian, and Helietta apiculata,^ described as a smaU tree, is found 



in Paraguay. 



The genus Helietta was named by Tidasne in honor of Louis Theodore Helie,' a distinguished 

 French physician who studied the poisonous properties of the Rue." 



Tulasne, Ann. Sci. Nat. ser. 3, vii. 281. founded a museum of anatomy. Ho contributed numerous articles 



^ Engler, Martins Fl. Brasil. xii. 2, 183, t. 39. to medical journals, and at the time of Ms death was an officer of 



Bentham, Hook. Icon. xiv. G7. the Legion of Honor, and a member of many learned societies. 



" Louis Theodore Il^lie (1804-1867) ; born in Nantes, graduated ^ » pe Taction v^n^neuse de la Eue, et de son influenee sur la 



in medicine at Paris in 1827, and professor of anatomy and physi- grossesse." (Annales d'Hygiene Publique, Paris, 1838, xx. 180.) 

 ology in the school of medicine of his native city, in which he 



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