CLASSIFICATION OF ANGIOSPER.MS. 



697 



VI. ORDEft- RUBIALES. 



The plants of this order are distinguished from all of the 

 preceding Sympetalae by having flowers which arc distinctly epigy- 

 nous. The leaves are opposite or verticillate. 



a. RUBIACE^ OR MADDER FAMILY.— The plants are 

 herbs, shrubs, or trees, and of the representatives found in the 

 United States the following may be mentioned: Bluets (Hous- 



FiG. 386. Cinchona Ledgeriana: A, flowering branch; B, bud and open flower; 

 C, fruiting branch. — After Schumann. 



tonia species), Partridge-berry {Mitchella repens), and Bedstraw 

 {Galium species). In Mitchella and Houstonia the flowers are 

 dimorphic. 



Cinchona species. — The plants are mostly trees, or rarely 

 shrubs, with elliptical or lanceolate, entire, evergreen, petiolate, 

 opposite leaves (Fig. 386). The flowers are tubular, rose-colored 

 or yellowish-white, and occur in terminal racemes. The fruit is 

 a capsule, which dehisces into two valves from below upward, 

 the valves being held above by the persistent calyx. The seeds 



