CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



showy flowers which change colour, passing in the 

 course of the day from a cream-coloured rose to 

 -a delicate pink or rich rose. H. tiliaceus yields 

 Cuba-bast. The tree-mallow (La-vatera arbored) 

 :grows on rocks exposed to the influence of the sea, 

 as on the Bass Rock and Ailsa Craig. Various 

 species of Sida furnish fibre. S. Phyttanthos and 

 S. Pichinchensis ascend, on the mountain of Anti- 

 sana and the volcano Rucu-Pinchincha, to the 

 elevation of 1 3,000 or 1 5,000 feet. 



Many of the Malvaceae are also medicinal and 

 dietetic. The pdte de Guimauve, which is made 

 from a species of marsh-mallow, is used on the 

 continent in disorders of the lungs ; from the 

 Althaa officinalis is prepared, in France, the vege- 

 table tracing-paper known by the name of papier 

 ve'ge'tal; and a blue matter, not inferior to indigo, 

 is obtained from the leaves of the hollyhock 

 (A. rosed}. The Chinese blacken their eyebrows 

 with the flowers of Hibiscus Rosa-sinensis, and 

 Europeans apply it to the less honourable purpose 

 of blacking their shoes. 



TERNSTROMIACE^E. This is one of the most 

 interesting natural orders, as, besides other fine 

 plants, it contains the camellias and tea-trees. All 

 the members are trees or shrubs, with very hand- 

 some flowers. The leaves are alternate, and with- 

 out stipules ; they are frequently leathery, and are 

 sometimes marked with pellucid dots. The flowers 

 have generally five sepals and five petals ; some- 

 times there are two additional sepals a little below 

 the others. The stamens are numerous, and either 

 ^row together into a central column, or are in five 

 distinct bundles. There are but few seeds, which 

 are large, and entirely filled with an embryo 

 having thick cotyledons like the bean, and no 

 albumen. 



Only a very few genera belonging to this order 

 have been introduced into this country ; but there 

 are a number of equally beautiful species found in 

 the East Indies and South America. Those best 

 known in Britain are the genera Gordonia, Stuartia, 

 Camellia, and Thea. The common camellia C. 

 Japonica is too well known to need any descrip- 

 tion, and its beautiful flowers and thick glossy 

 leaves must be familiar to every one. The double 

 varieties are numerous, but the ' old double white,' 

 as it is called, is still the favourite kind for ball- 

 room decoration. The tea-tree is very nearly 

 allied to the camellia, but its flowers and leaves 

 are smaller. The teas of commerce are obtained 

 from two different plants, named respectively Thea 

 Bohea and Thea viridis, on the supposition that 

 the former produced our ordinary black teas, while 

 the latter afforded green tea. However, both 

 kinds of tea are manufactured from either plant, 

 the difference mainly depending on the time of 

 gathering and the mode of preparation. The young 

 leaves, quickly dried and subjected to a particular 

 kind of manipulation, form green tea ; while the 

 older ones, dried more slowly, and undergoing 

 fermentation, constitute black tea ; but in some 

 cases the green colour is imparted by means of a 

 mixture of turmeric, Prussian-blue, and gypsum. 



Long confined to China, this branch of Oriental 

 agriculture has at length been successfully intro- 

 duced into India. The Assam Tea is furnished by 

 a larger plant than either of the preceding, which 

 is now regarded as a distinct species, T. Assamica. 



AURANTIACE^E. The golden fruit of the orange 

 and lemon, so characteristic of this order, is so 



92 



beautiful, that it is supposed to have been typified 

 by the celebrated apples of the Hesperides. The 

 order consists of elegant and fragrant trees or 

 shrubs. The leaves, though apparently simple, 

 are compound, because they are articulated with 

 the petiole, which in the orange and some other 



Lemon. 



species is winged. The calyx is tubular, with five 

 short teeth. The petals of the corolla are five in 

 number, thick and fleshy, and when held up to 

 the light, they appear full of pellucid dots, which 

 are receptacles of secretion filled with fragrant oil 

 There are generally twenty stamens, which are 

 divided into five bundles, the filaments in each 

 bundle adhering together. The fruit hesperi- 

 dium, as it is called by botanists is divided into 

 numerous cells by dissepiments, and there is a 

 central placenta, to which the ovules are attached 

 in the ovary ; but as the fruit swells, the seeds 

 become detached, and the cells fill gradually with 

 cellular tissue, till at last they become replete with 

 an acid and bitter pulp, in which the seeds are 

 immersed. The seeds are exalbuminous, and 

 sometimes contain more than one embryo. 



The most familiar genus is Citrus, the species 

 of which are chiefly natives of the tropics most 

 of them being found in a wild state exclusively in 

 the East Indies. The orange, however, appears 

 to have an extraordinary facility of adapting itself 

 to any country the climate of which is dry and 

 sunny ; and thus have arisen the orange groves 

 of St Michael and of Florida, besides those of 

 Malta, and various parts of Europe and North 

 Africa. All the kinds of orange, lemon, shad- 

 dock, citron, &c. belong to the genus Citrus. C. 

 Aurantium is the sweet orange, so generally 

 cultivated. The principal kinds are the common 

 orange, the Chinese or Mandarin, the Maltese, 

 and the St Michael C. medica is the citron ; C. 

 Limonum, the lemon ; C. Limetta, the sweet 

 lime ; and var. Bergamia, the bergamot ; C. 

 Parodist, the forbidden fruit ; and C. decumana, 

 the shaddock. The Wampee, the fruit of Cookia 

 punctata, is much admired in China and the 

 Indian Archipelago. j,gle Marmelos, the Indian 

 Bael or Bela, yields a delicious fruit. 



All the Aurantiaceae abound in a fragrant oily 

 matter, which is contained in the receptacles of 

 secretion in the rind of the fruit, and in the leaves 



