356 D1COTYLEDONES. 



The flowers of lirosimum are the most reduced. The perianth is -wanting, 

 and the $ -flower has only 1 stamen. Cecropia (Trumpet-tree), in S. Am., has 

 its pith divided into chambers ; these are inhabited by ants, which feed upon 

 small food-bodies formed on the swollen base of the petioles. The leaves are 

 petiolated, often shield-like, fringed or lobed, and sometimes with white felted 

 hairs. They serve as food for Bradypus (the Sloth). Sorocea; Castilloa. 



About 300 species exclusively in the warmer climates. The white Mulberry 

 (M. alba, from China, India, Mongolia) is cultivated for the sake of its leaves, 

 which are the indispensable food for silkworms. The black Mulberry (M. nigra, 

 W. Asia) is cultivated for its fruits, which are used for the officinal Mulberry 

 juice. The ordinary Fig-tree (Hens carica) is from the Mediterranean. The 

 fruit of the well-known Oriental Sycamore (F. sycomorus) is edible. The Bread- 

 fruit tree (Artocarpus incisa) and the Jack (A. integrifolia) have their home 

 in the South Sea Islands, and are cultivated in tropical countries. The 

 Bread-fruit is morphologically the same as the Mulberry. It has a very large, 

 spheroid inflorescence, whose floral-leaves and perianth become fleshy and 

 united into one nutritious mass, together with the axis, which is also fleshy. 

 The milky juice of the India-rubber tree (Ficns elastica, East Indies, a com- 

 mon house-plant), and of Castilloa elastica (Am.) is the raw material of India- 

 rubber. The milky juice of Galactodendron utile, (Cow-tree, S. Am.) is sac- 

 charine and nutritious, but in Antiaris toxicaria (the Upas-tree, of Java) it 

 is a strong poison. The bast of the Paper-Mulberry tree (Br. papyrifera, 

 Eastern Asia) is used in Japan for paper. Shellac is obtained from a small, 

 hemipterous insect (Coccus lacca), which lives upon Ficus laccifera and F. 

 religiota (the Bo-tree, sacred to Buddha), E. India. The wood of Madura 

 aurantica (Am.) has a yellow colour, and is known as yellow Brazilian wood. 



Order 4. Cannabaceae. The plants which belong to this 

 order are aromatic herbs, either annuals or perennials, without 

 latex. Leaves palminerved, and more or less divided, hispid, and 

 with free, persistent stipules. Flowers always dioecious-, $ -flowers 

 in panicles, formed of dichasia, passing over into uniparous scor- 



pioid cymes. They differ from the 

 Nettles, particularly in the 5-leaved 

 perianth of the ^-flower, the 5 sta- 

 mens (Fig. 346-351) with filaments 

 erect i n tne bud, and in the ? -flower 

 by the small, entire, cup-like perianth, 

 FIG. 3i6.-Diagram of male and which surrounds the base of the ovary 



female flowers of the Hop and (Fig. 346, p. 352). The Ovary has 

 Hemp : b the bract, p the perianth. . . , , . 



The position of the embryo is two styles, or one divided into two, 

 indicated. with two stigmas and a pendulous, 



curved ovule (Fig. 346 JB, 352 B] ; the fruit is a nut ; the embyro 

 is curved (Hemp, Fig. 353), or rolled (Hop, Fig. 349), without 

 endosperm. 



