CALYCIFLOR.E. 



267 



Asia and America ; the CunoniecB occur in the East Indies, the Cape, 

 Australia, and South America. 



Qualities and Uses. No important properties are attributed to this 

 Order ; a certain degree of astringency prevails in Saxifrages and Cuno- 

 niece. Their chief merit consists in the beauty of the many cultivated 

 species of alpine herbs, and of the hardy and half-hardy flowering shrubs. 

 The Saxifrages, Dcutzia, Ileuchera, and Escallonia, Hydrangea, and others 

 are familiar to every one. Philadelphus coronarius, the " Syringa" or Mock- 

 Orange of our shrubberies, a native of the south of Europe, is remarkable 

 both for the beautiful flowers (the sweet perfume of which depends on the 

 presence of an essential oil) and the peculiar flavour of the foliage, re- 

 sembling that of the cucumber. 



FRANCOACE^E is an Order composed of Chilian herbs with the habit of 

 Saxifrages, and flowers 4-merous throughout calyx, corolla, stamens (in 

 several circles), and carpels. Some authors consider them nearest to 

 Saxifragacese, with which they are combined by Bentham and Hooker ; 

 others to Crassulaceas, others to Rosaceae ; Lindley believes their nearest 

 affinity is to Droseracese. Genera : Francoa, Cav. j Tetilla, DC. 



CRASSULACE.E. THE STONE-CROP ORDER. 



Diagnosis. Succulent herbs or low shrubs with perfectly sym- 

 metrical flowers, the petals and pistils equalling the sepals in 

 number (3-20), and the stamens as many or twice as many : peri- 

 sperm fleshy or none. 



Character. 



Thalamm mostly flat. Calyx free, mostly 5-parted, rarely 3-10- 

 parted, imbricated in the bud, persistent. Corolla : petals as 

 many as the lobes of the calyx and alternate with them, distinct 

 or united below, emerging from the bottom of the calyx, imbri- 

 cated in aostivation. Stamens as many as the petals and alternate 

 with them, or twice as many (in 2 circles), free or adherent to the 

 (coherent) petals. Ovaries : carpels in a circle, as many as the 

 petals and opposite to them, often with a glandular scale at the 

 base outside, distinct or more or less coherent ; placentas at the 

 ventral suture ; styles distinct ; stigmas on the inside. Fruit : 

 a circle of dry follicles, or a capsule bursting at the dorsal sutures 

 or by the separation of the walls as valves from the septa ; seeds 

 varying in number, very small; embryo in the axis of fleshy 

 perisperm. 



ILLUSTRATIVE GENERA. 



Suborder 1. CRASSTJLE^. Fruits 

 foUicidar. 



Till ae a, Mich. 

 Crassula, Haw. 

 Bryophyllum, Salisb. 

 Cotyledon, DC. 

 Sedum, L. 



Sernpervivum, L. 



Suborder 2. DIAMORPHEJE. Car- 

 pels coherent into a plurilocular 

 capsule. 



Diamorpha, Nutt. 



Pentkorum, L. 



