2G6 



MORACEyE. 



[Diclinous Exogens. 



Order LXXXVII. MORACEjE.— Morads. 



Moreae, Endl. Prodr. 40, (1833) ; Gaudich, in Frcyci net , b09 ; Meisner, p. 350 : Endl. xcii.— Pholeosan- 

 these, lilume Bijdr. 436, (1825).— Sycoideae, Link Handb. 1. 292. (1829). 



Diagnosis. — Urtical Exogens, with solitary suspended ovules, and a hooked albuminous 



embryo loitlt a superior radicle. 

 Trees or shrubs, with a milky juice, sometimes climbing. Leaves of various forms 

 and texture, very commonly lobed and rough, with large stipules often rolled up, 

 inclosing the younger leaves, and leaving a ringed scar when they drop off. Flowers 



2 5 Fig. CLXXX. 4 



very inconspicuous, £ <j> , collected in heads, or spikes, or catkins. £ calyx 0, or 

 3-4-parted, imbricated. Stamens 3-4, inserted into the base of the calyx and opposite its 

 segments ; filaments generally shrivelled on the inner face ; anthers 2-celled, opening 

 lengthwise. <j> sepals 3-4-5, sometimes in two rows. Ovary 1 -celled, occasionally (by 

 accident 1) 2-celled. Ovules solitary, pendulous, or amphitropal, with the foramen 

 uppermost ; style terminal, bifid, with the lobes often unequal. Fruit, small nuts or 

 utricles, 1 -seeded, inclosed within a succulent receptacle, or collected in a fleshy head 

 formed by the consolidated succulent calyx. Seed solitary, with a thin brittle integu- 

 ment. Embryo lying in fleshy albumen, hooked, with the radicle long, superior, folded 

 down towards the cotyledons. 



The whole of the genera of this Order have either a remarkably enlarged receptacle, 

 upon or within which the flowers are arranged, as is seen in Ficus, and even more 

 strikingly in Dorstenia, or a tendency towards its formation is indicated, when the 

 flowers are gathered into heads of a spheroidal form, as in the Mulberry and Osage 

 Orange (Maclura). In this maimer the Order of Morads passes into that of the Artocar- 

 pads, from which indeed it hardly differs except in having an abundance of albumen, 

 and a hooked slender embryo. Strictly speaking, however, albumen occurs in the 

 Artocarpads in 1'hytocrene, which certainly must belong to them, and in Pyrenacantha, 

 which must, I think, be also referred thither, notwithstanding its somewhat different 

 habit. In the last edition of this work, Batis was referred to the present Order ; but I 

 now see, that while the species so named by Roxburgh certainly stand next to Morns, the 

 West Indian plant to which the designation properly applies must be stationed elsewhere. 



The tenacity of life in some plants of this family is remarkable. A specimen 

 of Ficus australis lived and grew suspended in the air, without earth, in one of the 

 hothouses in the Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, for eight months, without experiencing 

 any apparent inconvenience. 



None of the Morads are European, for the Mulberries and common Fig have been 

 brought from the East. The species inhabit the temperate and tropical latitudes of both 



Fig. CLXXX. — Morns alba. 1. A male flower ; 2. clusters of females ; 3. a female flower separate; 

 4. the same with a part of the calyx cut away ; 5 a vertical section of a ripe achamium ; 6. a cluster of 

 fruit consisting of succulent calyxes enclosing aclurnia. 



