158 DE CANDOLLE'S SYSTEM. 



131. Amarantacea. Herbs or shrubs. Leaves simple, 

 without stipules. Flowers in heads or spikes, usually coloured. 

 Calyx scarious, persistent, immersed in dry coloured bracts. 

 Stamens hypogynous. Ovary superior, 1- or few-seeded ; 

 ovules hanging from a free central funiculus. Fruit a utricle. 

 Seeds lentiform ; albumen farinaceous ; embryo curved round 

 the circumference ; radicle next the hilum. 



USES. Unimportant. The species are insipid, on which 

 account some species of Amaranthus have been employed as 

 spinach. Their dry richly coloured flowers render some of 

 the species beautiful objects of cultivation. 



TYPICAL GENERA. Amaranthus, Celosia, Trichinium. 



132. Begoniaceae. Herbaceous plants or under-shrubs. 

 Leaves alternate, oblique. Stipules scarious. Flowers uni- 

 sexual. Sepals in the males 4 ; in the females 5. Stamens 

 indefinite ; anthers collected in a head, the connective very 

 thick. Ovary winged, 3-celled, with 3 double polyspermous 

 placentae in the axis ; stigmas 3, somewhat spiral. Fruit 3- 

 celled, with an indefinite number of minute seeds; embryo 

 without albumen. 



USES. Unknown. 



TYPICAL GENUS. Begonia. 



133. Lauracea. Trees. Leaves without stipules, alter- 

 nate. Calyx 4-6-cleft, imbricated. Stamens definite, peri- 

 gynous; anthers 2-4-celled, bursting by recurved valves. 

 Glands at the base of the inner filaments. Ovary superior, 

 with one or two pendulous ovules. Fruit fleshy. Seed with- 

 out albumen ; embryo amygdaloid, with peltate cotyledons. 



USES. All appear to be aromatics, although some, as Oreo- 

 daphne foetens and others, have the aromatic principle so con- 

 centrated as to be acrid. The seeds of Nectandra Puchury 

 and Aydendron Cujumary are the Pichurim beans or Sassafras 

 nuts, used as a substitute for nutmegs. Cimiainomum zey- 

 lanicum yields cinnamon, and a bark of like nature is supplied 

 by many other plants of this order. Camphor is obtained 

 from Camphora officinarum ; and the aromatic Sassafras bark, 

 used by the people of the United States as a powerful sudo- 

 rific, is taken from the root of Sassafras officinale. The 



