EXOGENOUS OR DICOTYLEDONOUS PLANTS. 



405 



the Southern States) are exalbuminous ; the latter is 10-eoecous, 

 just as Linum is, by a false partition. Guaiacum, Larrea (Creo- 

 sote-plant of New Mexico and Texas), and the rest of the family, 

 have a corneous albumen. The wood of Guaiacum (Lignum-vitce) 

 is extremely hard and heavy, and yields a gum-resinous, bitter, and 

 acrid principle (Gum Guaiacum), well known in medicine. 



789. Ol'd. Simarilbaccae (Quassia Family), of tropical shrubs or 

 trees, resembles the last in generally having a peculiar scale to the 

 filaments. It is, however, more nearly related to the next order, 

 but its apocarpous ovaries are one-ovuled, and the (mostly com- 

 pound) leaves are dotless. The wood, &c. is intensely bitter : that 

 of Quassia amara is used as a stomachic tonic. The seed of Cedron 

 (Simaba Cedron) is the famous antidote for the bites of venomous 

 snakes in Central America. 



790. Ord. Rlltacca: (Rue Family). Herbs, shrubs, or trees ; the 

 leaves punctate with pellucid dots, and without stipules. Calyx of 

 four or five sepals. Petals four or five, or rarely none. Stamens 



7St 762 763 . 766 



as many or twice (rarely three times) as many as the petals, insert- 



FIG. 759. A flowering branch of Zanthoxylum Americanum (the Northern Prickly Ash). 

 760 A piece of a leaf, to' show the pellucid dots. 761 Staminate flower. 762. A pistillate 

 fower, the sepals spread open. 763. Two of the pistils ; one of them divided vertically to show 

 the ovules. 764. A branch in fruit. 765. One of the dehiscent pods, and the seed. 766 Ver. 

 tical section of an unripe pod and seed ; the latter pendent from a descending funiculus, show- 

 ing a slender embryo in copious albumen. 



