I 



FLACOl KT1A< I 











Obdeb CX. FLACOUR1 [AC] 



i 

 / 



Hi V. NOBIS, i 



'< and st<i> 



Shrubs or small trees. !. aves alternate, simple, on short stalks, without stii 

 usually entire, and leathery, very often mark.. I with 

 axillary, many-flowered. Sepals Gram 1-7, 

 cohering slightly at the base. Petals equal 

 to the latter in Dumber and alternate with 

 them, or wantu - mens hypogynous, .vV 



of the same number as the petals, ur twio 

 asms ime multiple of them. <>\a- ^ 



ry roundish, .-■ Bsile, or Blight!} 



1 or more celled, with 2 or more -^ -- f 



parietal placenta, which are either simple / \ ./ 



or branched ; Btylt either none or lili- 1 , , 



form; stigmas several, more or less dis- v ^l 



tinct ; ovules attached to the surface or 



sides of the placenta;, ami never to tli> i NJ 



axis in those genera whose ovarj has -rv . ^-icf, 



1'niit 1 -celled, either fl< Bhy 

 and indehiscent, or capsular, with i or 5 

 ralvi -. the a ntre filled with a thin pulp. 

 i 00, usually enveloped in a pellicle 

 formed by the withered pulp; albumen 

 fleshy, somewhat oily ; embryo Btraight, 

 in the axis, with the radicle turned to the 

 liilum, and therefore usually superior ; 

 cotyledons flat, foliaceous. 



Tin- two supposed Natural 



Orders now brought together, as 

 suggested bj several writers, and 

 cially by Mr. Bennett an i 

 Professor Endlicher, have never 

 possessed anj \:iliil claim to 

 be distinguished. The differ 

 between tnem were derived from 

 the mode of placentation, which 

 in Bixa ami it.s allies i> pari, i il .'• w. / 



in lines, while in I'laeourtia ;; " '. .\|' ,^ Jt 



spreads like a net all over the \ \ ' 



inner surface of the fruit. But 

 intermediate structures annul tl 



characteristic. I /? ' 



posed that the presence an i 



the allies of l'laemirtia of Certain ' ' x v ' N 



barren stamens or bcsIi s, would 



i in .i:\i.liiiL.' the latter from Bixa, in fact, 

 the lirst and Passionworts ; but those Bcales belong 

 Pangiads. Taken as a Natural Order, Bixads form a grou] i 

 by their hypogynous stamens and dotless 1> av< s, or at lea 

 if they are present ; from Passionworts bj tl 

 the total absence of all si^n of a 

 valvate calyx of some genera, thej have 





CCXXIV.— 



i riiv fruit • 4. 



• 



