Averrhoa.'] oxalide.e. 57 



small, reddish, in axillary sessile panicles of 1 to 2 in., or forming rather 

 large panicles at the ends of short branches. Sepals about 1 line long ; petals 

 near twice as long. The five smaller stamens usually very minute and 

 wholly without anthers, or occasionally 1 or 2 of them are longer, with small 

 barren anthers. Berry oblong, angular. Seeds arillate. 



Common in the island, both cultivated and wild, Champion and others. Cultivated for its 

 fruit (known by the name of Carambola) in the hotter regions both of the New and the Old 

 World, and almost everywhere it readily establishes itself apparently wild, so that its native 

 country is uncertain. 



Order XXIX. EUTACEiE. 



Flowers usually regular. Sepals 4, 5, or rarely 3, usually small and often 

 united at the base. Petals as many, inserted round a hypogynous or slightly 

 perigynous disk, free or rarely united at the base, imbricate or almost valvate 

 in the bud. Stamens as many or twice as many, inserted with the petals, free. 

 Anthers 2-celled, versatile. Carpels 3 to 5, sessile or on a raised torus or 

 short stalk, usually free at the top, but sometimes combined in a 3- to 5-celled 

 ovary. Styles often free at the base, but usually united upwards, Avith a 

 capitate or lobed stigma, which is sometimes sessile on the top of the ovary. 

 Ovules 2 or rarely 4 in each cell or carpel. Fruit either entire and indehis- 

 cent, or separating into cocci, or consisting of distinct carpels opening in two 

 valves. Seeds usually solitary in each carpel, with a smooth testa, with or 

 without albumen. Cotyledons flat or rarely crumpled. — Trees, shrubs, or 

 rarely herbs. Leaves alternate or opposite, often compound, and almost 

 always marked with glandular dots. 



A considerable Order, widely distributed over all but the colder regions of the globe. 



Carpels distinct, at least at the top. 



Leaves alternate. Ovules collateral 1. Xanthoxylum. 



Leaves opposite. Ovules superposed 2. Evodia. 



Carpels united in a single entire ovary and fruit. 



Mowers unisexual. Stamens 5. Leaflets 3 3. Toddaija. 



Flowers hermaphrodite. Stamens 8. Leaflets single 4. Cyminosma. 



1. XANTHOXYLUM, Kunth. 



Flowers unisexual or nearly so. Sepals and petals 4, 5, or rarely 3, much 

 imbricate in the bud. Stamens as many (in the female flowers semiabortive, 

 rudimentaiy, or wanting). Carpels 5 or fewer, on a globular or i-aised torus, 

 free or united at the base, with 2 collaterally ascending ovules in each (linear 

 or rudimentary, without ovules, in the males). Styles distinct or united at the 

 top. Fruiting carpels distinct, opening in 2 valves. Seeds ovoid or globular, 

 with a black shining testa. Embryo straight or slightly curved, in a some- 

 what fleshy albumen.— Trees or shrubs, often prickly. Leaves alternate, pin- 

 nately or ternately compound. Flowers small, in axillary or terminal panicles. 



A considerable genus, common to the New and the Old World, chiefly tropical, but with 

 a few extratropical species in Asia, N. America, and S. Africa. 



Panicles short, nearly sessile. Petals 4. Carpels 4. 



Leaflets 3 to 7 1. X nitidnni. 



Leaflets 15 to 25 2. 2^ cmpidatum. 



Panicles loose, pedunculate. Petals 5. Carpels 2 . . . . . . . 3. X. Avicenme. 



