CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 





petals, and which have ten stamens, with anthers 

 opening by a pore : the style is single, ending in a 

 capitate stigma cut into five lobes ; the fruit, a 

 five-celled capsule. 



OLEACE^E. Under this order are reckoned 

 upwards of 20 genera, and about 130 species. 

 They are trees and shrubs with erect or climbing 

 stems, and with leaves opposite, petiolate, simple, 

 seldom ternate or pinnate, and destitute of stipules. 

 The inflorescence is often paniculate ; the flowers 

 regular, and sometimes, by abortion, polygamous; 

 calyx, free, divided, and persistent ; corolla, hy- 

 pogynous, four-cleft, and rarely wanting ; stamens, 

 two, alternating with the lateral lobes of the corolla 

 when present, or when there are four petals con- 

 necting the lateral petals in pairs ; filaments, 

 free; anthers, two-celled, bursting longitudinally; 

 ovary, free, two-celled ; ovules, pendulous and in 

 pairs ; style, sometimes wanting ; stigma, entire 

 or bifid ; fruit, fleshy or dry, sometimes one-celled 

 by abortion. According to the character of the 

 fruit, the order is sometimes subdivided into the 

 OLE.*, having it a drupe or berry, and the 

 FRAXINE^E, having it samaroid. 



The principal genera are Olea, the olive ; 

 Fraxinus, the ash ; Oruus, the manna-ash ; 

 Ligustrum, the privet ; Syringa, the lilac ; Chio- 

 nanthus, the fringe-tree ; and Phillyrea. The olive 

 (O, Europcecf) is a well-known tree, with small 

 white flowers, and a fleshy drupe like a sloe, from 

 which is expressed the olive oil of commerce. The 

 ash (F. excelsior) is a common British tree, with 

 pinnate leaves, the flowers without a corolla, and 

 the fruit a winged samara or key, with one or 

 two seeds. The manna-ash (Ornus Europ<za), 

 though closely resembling the common ash in its 

 leaves and samara, has loose panicles of white 

 flowers, the corollas of which are divided into four 

 long narrow segments. The privet (Ligustrum 

 vulgare), the lilac (Syringa vulgaris), and Philly- 

 rea, are too common ornamental shrubs to require 

 particular notice. 



Economically, the oliveworts are of great import- 

 ance. Besides the oil of the olive, so universally 

 used in Europe, the unripe berries are pickled and 

 eaten on the continent to provoke an appetite ; and 

 the bark, which is bitter and astringent, is used 

 as a substitute for cinchona. The bark of the 

 common ash, as well as that of several others, is 

 astringent and febrifugal, while the wood of the 

 former is easily worked, and exceedingly tough 

 and durable. What is in the present day called 

 manna is a saccharine cathartic, procured by 

 wounding the bark of Ornus rotundifolia and 

 Europaa. The sweetness of this substance is not 

 due to the presence of sugar, but to a distinct prin- 

 ciple called Mannite, which differs from cane-sugar 

 in not fermenting with water and yeast 



LOGANIACE^:. This order consists chiefly of 

 woody plants, with opposite entire, stipulate leaves, 

 natives of the tropics. It is chiefly remarkable 

 from containing Strychnos Nux-vomica, the plant 

 from which strychnine is prepared. It is called 

 rat's -bane, poison -nut, or koochla. This tree 

 abounds on the Malabar and Coromandel coasts 

 of the Indian peninsula, and produces a small 

 orange-like fruit full of pulp, in which the seeds 

 are imbedded. The latter alone form the fatal 

 drug ; but the wood of the tree is intensely bitter, 

 and is employed in the cure of intermittent fevers 

 and the bites of venomous snakes. Strychnia, the 



103 



alkaloid upon which the poisonous properties of 

 the seeds depend, is an intensely bitter substance 

 so bitter, it is said, that its taste can be detected 

 when dissolved in 600,000 times its weight in water. 

 This has led to its use in the adulteration of malt 

 liquors, and there is reason to believe that it is still 

 used for this purpose. S. toxifera is the basis of 

 the famous woorali employed by the Red Indians 

 to poison their arrows, which thus cause immediate 

 death when introduced into the slightest wound. 

 S. Tieute" yields the upas radja of Java, not that 

 half-mythical upas around which so many fearful 

 fables have been entwined. 



CONVOLVULACE^E. A well-defined order, con- 

 taining about 670 species. The members are 

 lactescent herbaceous plants or shrubs, with stems 

 usually twining, and with leaves alternate, undi- 

 vided or lobed, and exstipulate. The inflorescence 

 is axillary or terminal; peduncles one or many 

 flowered, the partial ones generally with two bracts ; 

 calyx, persistent in five divisions, and imbricated 

 as if in more whorls than one often very unequal ; 

 corolla, monopetalous, hypogynous, regular, decid- 

 uous; the limb, five-lobed and plaited; stamens, 

 five, inserted into the base of the corolla, and alter- 

 nate with its segments; ovary, free, with two or 

 four cells; the ovules, definite and erect; style, 

 one, usually divided at the top ; stigmas, obtuse or 

 acute; capsule, with the valves fitting at their 

 edges to the angles of a loose dissepiment, bearing 

 the seeds at its base ; seeds, large ; albumen, 

 mucilaginous. 



The more familiar genera are Convolvulus and 

 Ipomoea, which have the corolla marked with a 

 decided fold or plait, peculiarly imbricated calyx, 

 and are climbing plants, not easily confounded 

 with any other family. The Convolvulus arvensis 

 is the wild climber of our hedges ; and C. tricolor, 

 so common in gardens, is a native of Sicily. The 

 bindweed (Convolvulus septum) is another of our 

 hedge-natives, and is a well-known pest of the farm 

 and garden. The roots of the order abound in an 

 acrid, purgative, milky juice, exemplified in jalap 

 which is obtained from Exogonium Purga and 

 in scammony, the concrete juice of the root of Con- 

 volvulus Scammonia, the roots or tubers of C. Bat- 

 atas, the sweet potato, are edible, as are also those 

 of Ipomoea macrorhtza, whose insipid farinaceous 

 tubers are found in the sandy soil of Georgia 

 and Carolina, weighing as much as forty or fifty 

 pounds. 



BORAGINACE.IE. The plants of this order are 

 chiefly herbaceous, have round stems, alternate 

 rough leaves, and flowers in scorpioidal cymes. 

 Corolla, usually regular and five-cleft, imbricate, 

 often with faucial scales. Fruit, two or four dis- 

 tinct achenes ; seeds, exalbuminous. Some of the 

 plants of the order yield dyes, such as the al- 

 kanet, others form pot-herbs ; one maritime species 

 (Mertansia maritime?) is a vegetable substitute for 

 oysters, having a similar flavour ; and another 

 (Symphytum asperrimuni) is particularly recom- 

 mended by agricultural writers as a suitable food 

 for pigs. More sentimental associations surround 

 the forget-me-not (Myosotis palustris), which is 

 not uncommon in marshy situations in Britain. 



NOLANACE^;, SOLANACE^E, ATROPACE^E. 

 These three groups are sometimes associated 

 under one order ; and although tabulated separ- 

 ately, we shall save space by discussing their 

 characteristics together, for they have many points 



