EXOGEN/E CALYCIFLORJE. 



119 



54. Anacardiaceee. Trees or shrubs, with a resinous caus- 

 tic juice, becoming black in drying. Leaves alternate, with- 

 out pellucid dots. Flowers small, green, unisexual. Calyx 

 small. Petals perigynous, imbricated. Stamens usually defi- 

 nite. Disk fleshy, hypogynous. Carpel simple ; styles 1 or 

 3, occasionally 4 ; ovule solitary, attached by a cord to the 

 bottom of the cell. Fruit indehiscent. Seed without albumen. 



USES. A hard, black, acrid varnish is obtained from Seme- 

 carpus Anacardium and Melanorhoea usitatissima. The Cashew 

 nut, whose eatable kernel is surrounded by a rind full of 

 resinous acrid oil, is produced by Anacardium occidentale. 

 Rhus toxicodendron and radicans are dangerous acrid poisons. 

 Rhus Coriaria, Cotinus, and some others, are astringents. 

 Rhus Typhinum, and some others, are cultivated as plants of 

 ornament. Pistacia Atlantica and Lentiscus yield mastich ; 

 and P. Terebinthus, Scio turpentine. 



TYPICAL GENERA. Rhus, Pistacia. 



Pistacia Atlantica. 1. Female flowers. 2. An ovary. 3. The same cut open to 

 show the ovule. 4. A ripe fruit opened to show the seed. 



55. Fdbaceee (or Leguminosa). Herbaceous plants, 

 shrubs, or trees. Leaves alternate ; petiole tumid at the base. 

 Stipules 2. Flowers usually showy. Calyx inferior, the 

 segments often unequal, and variously combined. Petals 

 either papilionaceous or regularly spreading. Stamens de- 

 finite or indefinite, perigynous, or hypogynous. Ovary sim- 

 ple, superior. Fruit a legume. Seeds destitute of albumen. 



