584 



HIPPOC'RATEACE.E. 



[Perigynous Exogens. 



Order CCXXIV. HIPPOCRATEACE^E.— Hippocrateads. 



Hippocraticea, Juss. Ann. Mm. 18, 483. (1811).— ffippocrateaceae, KwnOi in ffumb. N. G. Am. 5. 136. 

 (1821); DC. Prodr. 1. 067; Emit. Gen. ccxxxvii. ; Meimer, p. 56; Wight. Illustr. 1. 132. 



Diagnosis. — Rhamnal Exogens, with poh/petuloics floioers, an imbricated calyx, and 3 



monacklphous stamens. 



Arborescent or climbing shrubs, which are almost always smooth. Leaves opposite, 

 .simple, entire or toothed, somewhat coriaceous, with small deciduous stipules. Racemes 



axillary, in coiymbs or fascicles. 

 Flowers small, inconspicuous. Se- 

 pals 5, very small, imbricated, com- 

 bined as far as the middle, persistent. 

 Petals 5, somewhat imbricated in 

 aestivation. Stamens 3; filaments 

 cohering almost as far as the apex 

 into a tube dilated at the base, and 

 forming about the ovary a thick disc- 

 like cup ; anthers opening trans- 

 versely at the apex. Ovary free, con- 

 cealed by the tube, 3-celled ; style 1 ; 

 stigmas 1-3 ; ovules ascending ; ana- 

 tropal or half anatropal. Fruit either 

 consisting of 3 samaroid carpels, or 

 berried, with from 1 to 3 cells. 

 Seeds in each cell definite, attached 

 to the axis in pairs, some of them 

 occasionally abortive, sometimes 

 buried in pulp, erect without albu- 

 men ; embryo straight ; radicle 

 pointing towards the base ; cotyle- 

 dons flat, elliptical oblong, some- 

 what fleshy, cohering when dried. 



The ternary number of the stamens, 

 combined with pentamerous petals 

 and sepals, is the prominent charac- 

 teristic of this Order, which was 

 formerly included amoug Maples by 

 Jussieu, which is placed between 

 Erythroxyls and Marcgraaviads by 

 De Candolle, but which is, to all 

 appearance, much more nearly re- 

 for * the insertion of the ovules is 

 direction of the radicle is always 



CCCXCVI. 



lated to Spindle-trees, as Brown has remarked 

 either towards the base, or is central ; the 



inferior." — Congo, 427. In fact there seems to be nothing to divide Hippocrateads 

 from Spindle- trees except the cohesion of the filaments of the former into a cup. The 

 samaroid fruit, which is so remarkable, and which connects the Order with Malpighiads, 

 is not universal, but merely characteristic of certain genera. In Hippocratea ovata the 

 testa and cotyledons are furnished in the inside with innumerable spiral threads ; the 

 same economy has been remarked by Du Petit Thouars in the pericarp of Calypso. 

 According to Endlicher, the genera El.xodendron and rtelidium among Spindle-trees 

 connect that Order with Hippocrateads. 



The principal part are South American, about one-seventh are natives of Africa or 

 the Mauritian Islands, and the same number has been recorded as East Indian. 



The fruit of Tontelea (Salacia) pyriformis, a native of Sierra Leone, is eatable. It is 

 about the size of a Bergamot Pear ; its flavour is rich and sweet. The nuts of Hippo- 

 cratea comosa are oily and sweet ; it is called, in the French West India Islands, Anian- 

 dier du Bois. Martius reports that several species of Tontelea, called Saputa" in Brazil, 

 have a sweet mucilaginous fruit, which is eaten. I find no indication here of the emetic 

 and nauseous quality recorded as being characteristic of Spindle-trees. 



Fig. CCCXCVI.— Hippocratea Amottiana.— Wight. 



. ripe fruit. 



1. a flower ; 2. a cross section of the ovarj ; 



