ROCKROSE FAMILY. 69 



opens at the top long before the seeds are ripe ; the seeds are numerous, 

 kidney-shaped, on ;5-(i parietal placentae ; leaves alternate. 

 * Leaves not compound; flowers yellowish. 



R. odorata, Linn. Common Mignonette, (j) Anthers orange ; petals 

 0, the posterior ones cut into several line lobes ; stems low ; some leaves 

 entire and oblong, others 3-lobed. N. Africa. Cult, for the delicious 

 scent of the yellowish- white flowers. 



R. Luteola, Linn. Dvkr's Weed or Wkld. Tall, with lanceolate, entire 

 leaves, and a long spike of yellowish flowers ; petals 4. Nat. along road- 

 sides. Eu. 



* * Leaves campoinul, or essentially so ; flowers ivhite. 



R. diba, Linn. White or L'pright M. ® or (f), 2°-3° high, with 

 long, dense spikes of white flowers with brown anthers, and leaves all 

 pinnate or pinnatifid, the divisions lanceolate. Cult, from S. Eu. 



XIII. PITTOSPORACEiE, PITTOSPORU:VI FAMILY. 



A small family of shrubs and trees, belonging mostly to 

 the southern liemisphere, a few in common cultivation: 



1. PITTOSPORUM. (Greek : pitch, seed ; the seeds are generally 

 covered with a sticky exudation.) Flowers regular, of ij sepals, 5 

 petals, and A stamens ; the claws of the petals sometimes slightly 

 united ; ovary 1 -celled with 3 parietal placentae ; a single style and 

 stigma ; fruit a globular woody pod, many-seeded. Greenhouses. 



P. Toblra, Ait. Common P. Leaves obovate and retuse, evergreen, 

 crowded at the end of the branches, which are terminated by a small, 

 sessile umbel of white, fragrant flowers, produced in winter. Japan. A 

 low tree cultivated as a house-plant N., hardy S. 



P. undulatum, Andr., from Australia, has oval-lanceolate undulated 

 leaves tapering at both ends, and white flowers in close panicles. 



P. viridiflorum, Sims (or P. Sinense), from the Cape of Good Hope, 

 has obovate and retuse leaves and greenish-yellow jasmnie-scented flowers 

 in somewhat globose panicles. 



XIV. ciSTACEiE, iJocKROSE FA:\rrLy. 



Shrubby or low herbaceous plants, with regular flowers ; a 

 ]^ersistent calyx of 5 sepals, two of them exterior and resem- 

 l)ling bracts ; the petals and stamens on the receptacle ; the 

 style single or none ; ovary 1-celled with 3 or 5 parietal pla- 

 centae (Lessons, Fig. 334), bearing orthotropous ovules. 



1. HELL\NTIII:MUM. Petals 5, crumpled in the bud, fugacious (falling at the qlose of 

 the first day), or none. Stamens and ovules many in the conij>leto flower ; jilacentie 8. 

 style none or short. Low, yellow-tiowered ; in sandy or gravelly soil. 



'.'. IIUDSONL\. Petals 5, fugacious, much larger than the caly.\. Stamens 9-30. Style 

 slender. Ovules •2-(). Heath-like shrubs, G'-li' high ; leaves minute, downy, closely 

 covering the branches ; flowers sm.iU, yellow, opening in sunshine in >t»ring aud sum- 

 mer. Near the coast and Great Lake?. 



