THE POLYPETALOUS ORDERS. 397 



743. Ord, TernstramiacefB (the Tea Family). Trees or shrubs, 

 with a watery juice, alternate simple leaves without stipules, and 

 large and showy flowers. Calyx of three to seven coriaceous and 

 concave imbricated sepals. Petals five or more, imbricated in 

 aestivation. Stamens hypogynous, indefinite, monadelphous or 

 polyadelphous at the base. Capsule several-celled, usually with a 

 central column. Seeds few in each cell, large, with or without 

 albumen. Ex. Gordonia (Loblolly Bay), Stuartia, Thea (Tea), 

 Camellia. Ornamental plants, natives of tropical America, except 

 two genera in the Southern United States, and of Eastern Asia. 

 The leaves of Tea contain a peculiar extractive matter, and a 

 somewhat stimulant ethereal oil. 



744. Ord, Alirantlacerc (the Orange Family}. Trees or shrubs, 

 with alternate leaves (compound, or with jointed petioles), destitute 

 of stipules, dotted with pellucid glands full of volatile oil. Flowers 

 fragrant. Calyx short, urceolate or campanulate. Petals three to 

 five. Stamens inserted in a single row upon a hypogynous disk, 

 often somewhat monadelphous or polyadelphous. Style cylindri- 

 cal : stigma thickish. Fruit a many-celled berry, with a leathery 

 rind, filled with pulp. Seeds without albumen. Ex. Citrus, the 

 Orange and Lemon. Nearly all natives of tropical Asia ; now dis- 

 persed throughout the warmer regions of the world, and cultivated 

 for their beauty and fragrance, and for their grateful fruit. The 

 acid of the Lemon, &c., is the citric and malic. The rind abounds 

 in a volatile oil (such as the Oil of Bergamot from the Lime), and 

 an aromatic, bitter principle. 



745. Ord, MeliaceSB, Trees or shrubs, with alternate, usually 

 compound leaves, destitute of stipules. Calyx of three to five se- 

 pals. Petals three to five. Stamens twice as many as the petals, 

 monadelphous, inserted with the petals on the outside of a hypogy- 

 nous disk ; the anthers included in the tube of filaments. Ovary 



both are found deposited in cavities of the trunk, the latter frequently in 

 pieces as long as a man's arm, weighing ten or twelve pounds. It is more 

 solid than common camphor, and is not volatile at ordinary temperatures. It 

 bears a high price, and is seldom found in Europe or this country, but is 

 chiefly carried to China and Japan. A thin balsam, called wood-oil in India, 

 and used for painting ships and houses, is yielded by some species of Diptero- 

 carpus and Shorea. Shorea robusta yields the Dammer-pitch. Valeria Indica 

 exudes a kind of copal, the &iim Animi of commerce; and a somewhat aro- 

 matic fatty matter, called Piney Tallow, is derived from the seeds. 

 34 



