CALYCIFLOR^. 259 



anthers adnate and extrorse ; cotyledons convolute ; otherwise like Ro- 

 saceae. The species are natives of North America and Japan, and are 

 chieliy remarkable for the peculiarity of their floral envelopes, the 

 coloured bracts of the peduncle passing insensibly or undistinguishably 

 into the calyx, and this into the corolla ; the segments of both spring 

 from a fleshy tube supporting the stamens and surrounding the car- 

 pels ; convoluted cotyledons are only found in one Rosaceous plant, 

 Chamesmeles (Pomece), but are characteristic of Combretaceae. Calycanths 

 stand between the Rosaceae and the Myrtaceae, and have, perhaps, a 

 distant resemblance to Magnoliaceas, like that of Rosaceae to Ranun- 

 culaceae. Bailloii places them with Monimiads. Their wood is curious, 

 the stem having four false woody axes around the real axis, giving the 

 stem a quadrangular character. The chief property is fragrance of the 

 blossom. Clmnonanthus produces yellow fragrant flowers upon the leaf- 

 less branches during the winter. Calycanthus floridm has an aromatic 

 bark. 



MYRTACE^E. THE MYRTLE ORDER. 



Coh. Myrtales, Benth. et Hook. 



Diagnosis. Trees or shrubs with leaves opposite or alternate, 

 entire, usually dotted, and with a submarginal vein; flowers 

 usually axillary, regular, polypetalous or apetalous ; calyx ad- 

 herent, 4-5-clefb, valvate or imbricate, sometimes falling off like a 

 cap ; petals 4-5, imbricated ; stamens 8-10 or numerous, rarely 

 4-5, distinct or polyadelphous ; ovary 1-, 2-, 4-, 5-, or 6-celled; 

 style and stigma simple; placentas axile ; seeds usually indefinite, 

 aperispermic ; fruit dry or succulent, dehiscent or indehiscent. 

 Illustrative Genera: Tribe 1. LEPTOSPERME.E. Fruit capsular. 

 Melateuca, L. ; Eucalyptus, Herit. ; Metrosideros, R. Br. ; Hceckia, 

 L. Tribe 2. MYRTE.E. .Fruit baccate. Panica, L. ; Psidium, L. ; 

 Myrtus, Tournef . ; Eugenia, Michel. 



Affinities, &<v This Order is nearly related to the Rosaceae on the one 

 hand, and to the Melastomacese, Lythraceae, and Onagraceae on the other. 

 The Lecythidaceae, the Chamaglauciaceae, and some other smaller Orders 

 mentioned below are often combined with the Myrtacea3 ; but as the 

 plants belonging to them are less interesting, or less* frequently seen, it is 

 convenient here to exclude them, in order to retain a very definite character 

 for the Myrtaceae proper. This Order is generally known among epigy- 

 nous forms by the vein running round within the margin of the simple, 

 entire, and mostly opposite leaves, uniting with the midrib at the end, 

 together with the transparent glandular dots and the absence of stipules 

 and of appendages to the anthers. The fruit of Punica, or Pomegranate, 

 is very curious, and presents unusual conditions a double circle of car- 

 pels, which by the mode of growth of the excavated receptacle come to 

 be placed one above another, so as to present two tiers of loculi in the 

 fruit. The real nature of the structure may be conceived by comparing it 

 with the Rose, and by supposing the achenes of the latter to become 



s2 



