THE POLYPETALOUS ORDERS. 



,377 



juice of all Ranunculaceous plants is acrid, or even caustic : some 

 are virulent narcotico-acrid poisons. 



705. Ord, Magnoliaceae (the Magnolia Family). Trees or shrubs ; 

 with ample and coriaceous, alternate, entire or lobed leaves, usu- 

 ally punctate with minute transparent dots : stipules membrana- 

 ceous, enveloping the bud, falling off when the leaves expand. 

 Flowers solitary, large and showy, mostly odorous. Calyx of 

 three to six deciduous sepals, colored like the petals ; the latter 

 three or several, often in several rows. Stamens numerous, mostly 

 with short filaments, and adnate anthers. Carpels either several 

 in a single row, or numerous and spicate on the prolonged recep- 

 tacle ; in the latter case usually more or less cohering with each 

 other, and forming a fruit like a cone or strobile. Seeds mostly 

 one or two in each carpel, often with a pulpy exterior coat, and 

 suspended, when the carpels open, by an extensile funiculus, com- 

 posed of unrolled spiral vessels. Embryo minute, at the base of 

 homogeneous fleshy albumen. There are three well-marked sub- 

 orders ; namely : 



706. Subord, Magnoliea; (the true Magnolia Family), characterized 



principally as above, especially by the stipules and the imbricated 



FIG. 487. Magnolia glauca. 488. A stamen, seen from the inside, showing the two lobes of 

 the adnate anther. 489. The carpels in fruit, persistent on the receptacle, and opening by the 

 dorsal suture; the seeds suspended by their extensile cord of spiral vessels. 



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