396 



EXOGENOUS OR DICOTYLEDONOUS PLANTS. 



five clusters, distinct or somewhat united, one of each parcel often 

 transformed into a petaloid scale ; anthers two-celled. Styles 

 united into one. Fruit two to five-celled, or, by obliteration, one- 

 celled when ripe. In other respects nearly as in Malvaceae. 

 Ex. Tilia, the Linden, or Lime-tree (Fig. 622), represents the or- 

 der in northern temperate regions ; the other genera are tropical. 

 All are mucilaginous, with a tough, fibrous inner bark. From this 

 last or bass of the Linden, the Russian mats, &c., are made, 

 whence the name of Basswood. Gunny-bags and fishing-nets are 

 made in India from the bark of Corchorus capsularis ; the fibre of 

 which is called Jute, and is spun and woven. The light wood of 

 the Linden is excellent for wainscoting and carving : its charcoal 

 is used for the manufacture of gunpowder. It is said that a little 

 sugar may be obtained from the sap : and the honey made from 

 the odorous flowers is thought to be the finest in the world. The 

 acid berries of Grewia sapida are employed in the East in the 

 manufacture of sherbet.* 



* ORD. DIPTEROCARPE^E, intermediate in some respects between 

 Tiliacea; and Ternstrcemiaceee, consists of a few tropical Indian trees, with a 

 resinous or balsamic juice. Dryobalanops aromatica, a large tree of Sumatra 

 and Borneo, yields 'in great abundance both a camphor oil and solid camphor : 



FIG. 622. Flowering branch of Tilia Americana, the common American Linden ; the flow- 

 er stalk cohering with the bract. 623. One of the clusters of stamens adhering to the stami- 

 nodium, or petaloid scale. 624. The pistil. 625. Cross-section of the fruit, which has become 

 one-celled by the obliteration of the partitions, and one-seeded. 626. Vertical section of the 

 seed, magnified, to show the large embryo with its taper radicle and foliaceous crumpled co- 

 tyledons. (A better section of the seed, cut in the direction across the cotyledons, is shown in 

 Fig. 451.) 627. Diagram of the flower. 



