380 



EXOGENOUS OR DICOTYLEDONOUS PLANTS. 



flowers. Stamens as many as the petals, and opposite them, or two 

 to four times as many : anthers often four-celled. Carpels usually 

 several, but only one or two of them commonly fructify, at first 

 straight, but during their growth often curved into a ring ; in fruit 

 becoming berries or drupes. Seeds solitary, filling the cavity of 

 the bony endocarp : embryo large, inclosed in the thin, fleshy al- 

 bumen. Ex. Menispermum, or Moonseed (Fig. 495-502), Coc- 

 culus. The roots are mostly bitter and tonic (e. g. Colombo Root 

 of the materia medica) ; but the fruit is often narcotic and acrid ; 

 as, for instance, the Cocculus Jndicus of the shops, so extensively 

 used for rendering malt liquors more intoxicating, and for stupefy- 

 ing fishes. 



711. Ord, BerberidaceSB (the Barberry Family). Herbs or shrubs, 



with a watery juice ; the leaves alternate, compound or divided, 



FIG. 503. A shoot of Berberis vulgaris, the common Barberry. 504. A flowering branch 

 from the axil of one of its leaves or spines the following year. 505. An expanded flower. 

 506. A petal, nectariferous near the base. 507. A stamen; the anther opening by uplifted 

 valves. 508. Cross-section of a young fruit. 509. Vertical section ; the seeds attached at the 

 base. 510. Vertical section of a seed enlarged, showing the large embryo with foliaceous co- 

 tyledons and a taper radicle, surrounded by albumen. 511. The embryo separate. 



