284 APETALOUS EXOGENS 



Orders, designated as the Bread-fruit, Mulberry, Hemp, and Nettle families. It 

 certainly contains plants of remarkably dissimilar aspect and properties ; such as 

 the Nettle and the Mulberry the bitter Hop and the luscious Fig the nutritious 

 Bread-fruit (Artocarpus ina'sa, i.) and the reputed deadly Upas (Antiaris toxicaria, 

 Leschtn). The celebrated Cow-tree, or Palo de Vaca (Brosimum Galactodendron, 

 Don), of South America " which yields a copious supply of rich and wholesome 

 milk" belongs to this Order; as also does the yellow-dye wood, called Fustic 

 (Madura tinctoria, Don), the wide-spreading Banyan tree (Ficus religiosa, Z.) of 

 India, &c. 



SUBORDER I. MORE^AE. * 



Trees, or shrubs, with a milky juice; leaves alternate, with deciduous stipules; 

 staminate and pistillate flowers sometimes intermixed, but usually in separate 

 epikes, or heads, and occasionally (as in the Fig) included in the hollow recep- 

 tacle; the calyx, or receptacle, of the pistillate flowers, becoming succulent in fruit; 

 Stigmas 2 ; embryo curved, in copious albumen. 



384. MACL.ITRA, Nuttall. 



[Dedicated to William Maclure, a munificent Patron of Natural Science.] 

 Flowers dioicous : STAM. FL. racemose. Calyx 4-parted. PISTIL- 

 LATE FL. densely crowded, and coalesced, on a globose receptacle. 

 Sepals 4, in opposite pairs, oblong, somewhat cucullate and fleshy. 

 Ovary 1-celled, sessile; style terminal, bifid, one branch large, 

 much exserted, stigmatic on the inner side, the other small, or 

 abortive. Akenes 1 -seeded, embraced by the sepals, and all coa- 

 lesced into a large compound globose lactescent yellowish-green 

 berry, with a glabrous, but uneven, irregularly tessellated surface. 

 Small trees, the branches armed with very sharp slender spines. 



1. M. AURANTIACA, Nutt. Leaves lance-ovate, acuminate, entire, 

 smooth and shining above, puberulent beneath ; berry subsessile, 

 axillary, solitary. 

 ORANGE-LIKE MACLURA. Osage Orange. Bow-wood. 



Stem 20 to 30 feet high, with a much-branched spreading or bushy top, the 

 branches virgate, but often inclined to droop or curve downward, armed with small 

 and very sharp spines, Leaves 4 to 6 inches long, subcoriaceous, mucronate; 

 petioles 1 to 2 inches in length ; stipules oblong, somewhat cucullate, caducous. 

 Principal style-branch near an inch long, villous, purplish. Fruit coalesced in a 

 solid globose head which is 2 to 3 inches in diameter. 

 Hob. Yards; hedges, <fcc. Nat. of Arkansas. FL May. Fr. Oct. 



Obs. The roots of this are of a bright orange color, and so abun- 

 dant, and extensive, as to be troublesome, in gardens. The wood 

 shows an affinity with that of the Mulberry, and therefore is 

 probably durable. It is said to have been highly valued for making 

 Bows, by the aboriginal hunters and warriors. I have observed 

 that Silk- worms feed greedily on its leaves ; and the young plants, 

 properly managed, promise to make a very neat and effective hedge, 

 though I apprehend the roots would exhaust the soil to an injurious 

 extent on each side, in cultivated grounds. 



*We have no plant belonging to the Suborder ARTOCARPEAE, or Bread-fruit 

 division, growing in this County. The nearest approach to the structure and 

 appearance of the Bread-fruit, is in the fruit of the Madura, or Osage Orange, 

 which has been introduced from the South West. 



