386 



PETIVERIACEyE. 



[HVPOGYNOUS EXOGENS. 



Order CXXXVII. PETIVERIACEiE.— Petiveriads. 



Petiveriese, Agardh Classes, (18251 ; Endl. Gen. p. 975.— Petiveriaceae, Link Handb. 1. 392. (1829) ; 



Ed. pr. clix. ; Meisn. Gen. p. 316. 



Diagnosis. — Sapindal Exogens, with apetalous flowers and a solitary carpel. 

 Uader-shrubs or herbaceous plants, with an alliaceous odour. Leaves alternate, 

 entire, with distinct stipules, often with minute pellucid 

 dots. Flowers racemose or panicled. Calyx of several 

 distinct leaves. Stamens between perigynous and hypo- 

 gynous, either indefinite,or, if equal to the segments of the 

 calyx, alternate with them. Ovary superior, 1-celled ; 

 style one ; stigma lateral ; ovule erect. Fruit 1-celled, 

 indehiscent, dry, either wingless, wedge-shaped and 

 spiny at the point, or extended at the back into a 

 narrow flat wing (samara). Seed erect without albu- 

 men ; embryo straight or curved ; cotyledons convo- 

 lute ; radicle inferior. 



According to Brown and Endlicher these plants 

 are only a section of Phytolaceads. They are, how- 

 ever, distinguished by the presence of stipules, and 

 by their straight exalbuminous embryo with spiral 

 cotyledons. Their habit too is adverse to this 

 approximation, while the key-like fruit of Seguiera 

 and its inflorescence suggests a relationship to Soap- 

 worts, which does not seem removed by a comparison 

 of the exact structure of the two. It is true that the 

 latter Order in general has petals, and that Petiver- 

 iads have none ; but then we have many apetalous genera 

 among Soapworts. In both the seeds are erect, the exalbu- 

 minous embryo rolled up, the radicle inferior ; and even in the 

 number of their stamens they correspond, if we compare 

 Seguiera with Prostea. In fact, instead of separating these 

 Petiveriads from Soapworts by a long interval, they might 

 almost be regarded as an apetalous form of that Order, with 

 carpels reduced to one. It is to be observed that Petiveria 

 and Seguiera are not entirely like one another, and that these 

 remarks apply to Seguiera only. 



West Indian or tropical American plants ; for the Seguiera 

 asiatica of Loureiro probably does not belong to the Order. 



All the parts of Petiveria alliacea, the Guinea-hen weed of 

 the West Indies, are excessively acrid ; a small portion of 

 the leaves chewed is said by Burnett to render the tongue as 

 dry and black and rough as it appears in cases of malignant 

 fever. The negroes consider it a sudorific, and say that 

 vapour baths or fumigations of it will restore motion to 

 paralysed limbs. The roots are used in the West Indies as a 

 remedy for toothache ; the negresses also administer it to 



procure abortion. — Schomb. in Linnaa, ix. 511. P. tetrandra is employed in Brazil 

 under the name of Raiz de Pipi in warm baths and lotions, as a remedy for defective 

 contraetibility of the muscles, or in paralysis of the extremities arising from cold. It 

 has an intense alliaceous odour.- — Martius. The same writer informs us that the root, 

 wood, and all the herbaceous parts of Seguiera alliacea have a powerful odour of 

 garlic or asafcetida ; baths impregnated with them are in repute in Brazil in cases of 

 rheumatism, dropsy, and hsemorrhoidal affections. Fomentations of the leaves and 

 young branches are employed to alleviate tumours of the prostate ; the wood 

 abounds in potash, and the ashes are employed in clarifying sugar and in soap-making 



in Brazil. 



GENERA. 



Petiveria, L. Seguiera, L. | Gallesia, Casar. 



Fig. CCLXIX. 



POSITION.- 



Numbers. Gen. 3. Sp. 10. 



Phytolaccacece. 

 Petiveriace^:. — Sapindacese. 



Fig. CCLXIX. — Seguiera floribunda. I. a flower ; 2. a perpendicular section of an ovary , 3. samaras. 



