650 



JASMINACEjE. 



[Perigynous Exogens. 



Order CCXLIX. JASMINACE^E.— Jasminworts. 



Jasmine*, Juu. Gen. Plant. 104. (1789) in part; R. Brotm Prodr 520; Endl. Gen. cxxix. ; Alph. 

 DC. Prodr. 8. 300— Bolivarieac, Griseb. Gent. 20. ; Endl. Gen. Suppl. 2. oa. 



Diagnosis.— EcMal Exogens, with 2 distinct lobes to the fruit, 2 stamens, a naked stigma, 



and regular wisymmetrical flowers. 



Shrubs, often having twining stems. Leaves opposite or alternate, mostly compound, 

 ternate or pinnate, with an odd one ; sometimes simple, the petiole almost always 



having an articulation. Flowers oppo- 

 site, in corymbs, white or yellow, often 

 sweet-scented. Calyx with 5 to 8 divisions 

 or teeth, persistent. Corolla monopeta- 

 lous, hypogynous, regular, hypocrateri- 

 forni, with from 5 to 8 divisions, which 

 lie laterally upon each other, and are 

 twisted or valvate in estivation. Sta- 

 mens 2, arising from the corolla, inclosed 

 within its tube. Ovary destitute of an 

 hypogynous disk, 2-celled, 2-lobed, with 

 from 1 to 4 erect anatropal ovules in 

 each cell ; style 1 ; stigma 2-lobed. Fruit 

 either a double berry or capsule. Seeds 

 either with no albumen or very little, 

 their skin tumid or membranous ; em- 

 bryo straight ; radicle inferior. 



Jasminworts were formerly combined 

 with Oliveworts, from which Brown 

 distinguished them by their ovules 

 being erect, their seed with no, or very 

 little, albumen, by the aestivation of the 

 corolla being imbricate, not valvate, and 

 by the number of its divisions being five 

 or more, and consecpiently not regularly 

 a multiple of the stamens, instead of 4, which is a multiple of them. Ach. Richard 

 endeavours to show that these differences are insufficient. He states, that the ovules 

 of Jasminworts are originally pendulous, as in Oliveworts, but that they subsequently 

 become erect in consecpience of the growth of the ovary, whose apex does not elongate, 

 while its sides extend considerably during the growth of the fruit. He says, upon the 

 authority of his father, that albumen does exist in Jasminum and Nyctanthes ; a fact 

 which had been previously mentioned by Brown in defining the Orders, but to which 

 that distinguished Botanist attached no importance, because only a small quantity was 

 found by him to exist, while it is abundant in Oliveworts ; and he probably conceived, 

 as I certainly do, that it is the difference of its quantity only which gives the albumen 

 value as a mark of ordinal distinction. But it does not appear to me that Jasminworts 

 have any real connection with Oliveworts ; on the contrary, their unsymmetrieal flowers 

 and deeply-lobed fruit suggest a very different affinity, and seem to point distinctly to 

 those monopetalous Orders in which the number of stamens is different from that of 

 the divisions of the corolla, such as Labiates and Verbenes, but particularly the latter, 

 which sometimes resemble Jasminworts in their fruit, as happens in Clerodendron. 

 Brown stations them between Pedaliads and Oliveworts ; Ue Candolle between Oliveworts 

 and Loganiads. Endlicher indicates an approach to Dogbanes. To me they seem to 

 be the "connecting point between the Cortusal and Echial Alliances, touching the 

 former at Ardisiads and the latter at Verbenes or Labiates. 



Chiefly inhabitants of tropical India, in all parts of which they abound. One Jasmi- 

 num only is mentioned from South America, but there are at least 3 species of Bolivarn 

 on that continent ; a few are natives of Africa and the adjoining islands ; New Holland 

 contains several ; and, finally, 2 extend into the southern climates of Em-ope. 



Of some species the oil produced by the flowers is deliriously fragrant. The genuine 



Pig. CCCCXXXV.— Jasminum ligustrifolium. 1. a corolla cut open ; 2. vertical section of the ovary! 

 3. section of a seed of Nyctanthes. — Gartner 



Fig. CCCCXXXV. 



