262 SYSTEMATIC BOTANT. 



place here Cassipottrea and Legnotis, which connect this Order with the last 

 two ; Lindley refers the Cassipourea or Legnotidece to theLoganial Alliance. 

 The striking feature of this Order is the germination of the seeds within 

 the fruit while attached to the branch, the roots descending to the mud 

 and establishing themselves before the plumule emerges. The trees also 

 continually send out arching adventitious roots, which strike and become 

 new trunks, like those of the Ficus indica, forming the Mangrove-swamps 

 of tropical estuaries. The fruit of Rhizophora Mangle is edible. The 

 bark is generally very astringent in this family. The wood of the radicles 

 contains curiously branched wood- or liber-cells. 



VOCHYSIACEJH are trees or shrubs, with resinous juice and mostly 

 opposite entire leaves, with glands or stipules at the base ; flowers perfect, 

 irregular; calyx and corolla imbricated, of unequal pieces; stamens 1-5, 

 usually opposite the petals, arising from the bottom of the calyx, mostly 

 only one fertile, with an ovate 4-celled anther ; ovary free, or 'partly ad- 

 herent, 3-celled, with axile placentas, or 1 -celled with 2 basilar ovules ; 

 seeds usually winged, without perisperm. Illustrative Genera: Qualea, 

 Aubl. ; Vochysia, Juss. ; Salvertia, St.-Hil. The members of this small 

 Order are natives of the equinoctial regions of America, and are known 

 chiefly as timber-trees, often having large showy blossoms. Their affinities 

 are obscure. Some authors regard them as related to the Clusiacese, 

 others to the ViolaceaB and the Polygalacese, near which latter they are 

 placed by Bentham and Hooker. On account of their calyciflorous structure 

 they are usually placed near Combretacea3. 



COMBRETACEJ5 are trees or shrubs, with alternate or opposite, ex- 

 stipulate leaves, not dotted ; flowers perfect or diclinous by abortion ; 

 calyx adherent, with a 4-5-lobed deciduous limb ; petals 5, perigynous, 

 or absent ; stamens perigynous, 5, 10, or 15, mostly 10 ; ovary 1-celled, 

 with 2-4 pendulous ovules ; style and stigma simple ; seeds aperispermic ; 

 cotyledons convolute. Illustrative Genera: Tribe 1. TERMINALIE^E. 

 Usually apetalous ; cotyledons convolute. Bntida, L. ; Terminalia, L. ; 

 Pentaptera, Roxb. Tribe 2. COMBBBTEJB. Corolla present ; cotyledons 

 plaited. Combretum, Loffl. ; Quisqualis, Humph. Tribe 3. GYROCARPE.E. 

 Apetalous ; cotyledons convolute j anthers bursting by recurved valves. 

 GyrocarpiiS) Jacq. ; Illigera, Bl. 



Affinities, &c. Related to Myrtaceae, especially through Punica, but dis- 

 tinguished by the unilocular ovary and 1-seeded fruit. The structure of the 

 flower allies the Order to Onagracese and Rhizophoraceae ; the apetalous 

 forms approximate in some degree to Santalacese and Lauraceae. 



Distribution. An Order comprising upwards of 200 species, generally 

 distributed throughout the tropics. 



Qualities and Uses. The general property is astringency. The barks 

 of Bucida Buceras, of Conocarpus racemosa, and of various Terminalu? are 

 used for tanning. The fruit of Terminalia beterica, the Myrobalan, is 

 astringent. A gum is obtained from the bark of T. belerica and Combretum 

 alternifolium. T. Benzoin has milky juice, which hardens into fragrant 

 gum-resin, used as incense in Mauritius. The seeds of T. Catappa are 

 eaten like almonds. Many of the plants are valuable timber-trees ; and a 

 number are cultivated on account of their flowers. 



