364 LXXIV. CONNARACE^E. 



LXXIV. CONNARACE^E. 1 



[Erect or climbing TREES or SHRUBS with watery juice. LEAVES alternate, ex- 

 stipulate, 1-3-foliolate or imparipinnate ; leaflets coriaceous, always quite entire. 

 FLOWERS rather small, usually g , regular or nearly so, in racemes or panicles. 

 CALYX 5-fid or 4-5-partite, usually persistent and embracing the base of the fruit, 

 imbricate or valvate in bud. DISK 0, or membranous, or annular and embracing the 

 bases of the stamens, sometimes unilateral. STAMENS 5 or 10, perigynous or hj^po- 

 gynous, sometimes decimate, if 10 those opposite the petals usually smaller and 

 often imperfect ; filaments filiform, usually monadelphous ; anthers short, didymous, 

 bursting longitudinally, introrse or extrorse after flowering. PETALS 5, linear- 

 oblong, free, or cohering slightly in the middle, imbricate or very rarely valvate in 

 bud. CARPELS 5, rarely 1-3, globose, free, hirsute, 1-celled; styles subulate or fili- 

 form ; stigma* capitellate, simple or 2-lobed ; ovules 2, collateral, ascending from the 

 inner angle of the cell, orthotropous. FRUIT of usually a solitary sessile or stipitate 

 follicle, dehiscing by the ventral (rarely by the dorsal) suture, often hairy within, 1- 

 (rarely 2-) seeded. SEED erect, arillate or not ; testa thick, sometimes fleshy, coloured, 

 and aril-like around the lower half of the seed ; aril fleshy, coloured, entire, dimi- 

 diate or cupular. EMBRYO either exalbuminous with amygdaloid cotyledons, or 

 with fleshy albumen and foliaceous cotyledons ; radicle superior, very rarely ventral. 



PRINCIPAL GENERA. 



Byrsocarpus. Agelaea. Hourea. Connarus. 



Manotes. Cnestis. TricholobuB. Ellipanthus. 



A considerable order, of a dozen genera and 140 species, of very complex affinities, perhaps most 

 closely allied to Terebinthaceee, but differing in the hermaphrodite flowers, geminate orthotropous ovules, 

 and constantly superior radicle. The exstipulate leaves, usually albuminous seed, orthotropous collateral 

 ovules and superior radicle distinguish it from Leguminosee. Planchon has pointed out its many points 

 of analogy with Oralidete, especially through the genus Connaropsis ; but their corolla is not contorted, 

 their carpels are free, and they differ essentially in the ovules, seed, and embryo. Byrsocarpus presents 

 the remarkable structure of Incunose cotyledons, &c. ; the petals are valvate in Tricholobus, and (according 

 to Bluine) its ovules are anatropous, which character may remove it from the order. 



Connaraceee are altogether tropical, and chiefly Asiatic and Malayan ; but many are American, African, 

 and several Australian and Pacific. They are chiefly valuable in an economic point of view for their 

 woods: of these one is the beautiful Zebra wood (Connarus Lambertii),t(, native of Guiana. The aril of 

 some species is edible. The seeds of C. speciosus, a large Rangoon tree, yield an abundance of oil, and 

 its wood is very useful, as is that of C. paniculatus. ED.] 



LXXV. LEGUMINOS^E. 



(PAPILIONACE^E et LOMENTACE^E, L. LEGUMINOSJB, Jusvieu.) 



HERBS, SHRUBS, or TREES. LEAVES alternate, usually compound, stipulate. 

 FLOWERS irregular or regular, 5 , or sometimes diclinous. COROLLA perigynous or 

 hypogynous, regular and valvate in aestivation, or irregular and imbricate, rarely 0. 



1 This order is not described in the original. ED. 



