Oil. SAMYDACE^E. 



441 



Trapa. Young fruit (mag.). 



Trapa. Ripe fruit (mag.). 



Trapa. Petal (mag.). 



bent, superior, piercing the top of the fruit in germination ; plumule very small, 

 concealed within the small cotyledon. 



ONLY GENUS. 

 Trapa. 



Trapece are closely related to Halorayece (see this family). T. natuns, the Water Chestnut or 

 Calthrop, inhabits stagnant water in Central and Southern Europe. Its seeds aft'ord a farinaceous food, 

 as do those of the Kashmirian T. bispinosa, and the Chinese T. bicomis, called by the natives Ling 

 or Ki-chi. 



CIL 



(HOMALINEJS, EndL) 



[TREES or SHRUBS, glabrous, or pubescent or touientose. LEAVES petioled, simple, 

 alternate, distichous, quite entire or serrate, teeth sometimes gland-tipped ; stipules 

 email, usually deciduous or 0. FLOWERS , regular, inconspicuous^ raceined, 

 fascicled or panicled, pedicels articulated and 2-bracteolate. CALYX coriaceous, per- 

 sistent, tube usually free ; lobes 3-7, imbricate or valvate. PETALS as many as the 

 calyx- lobes, and like them, rarely more or 0, perigynous, imbricate in bud. DISK 

 cupular, annular or glandular. STAMENS definite or indefinite, l-oo -seriate, usually 

 alternating with staminodes, equidistant or collected in fascicles ; filaments filiform 

 or capillary, free or connate ; anthers didymous or oblong, introrse or extrorse, 

 dehiscence longitudinal. OVARY free, rarely adnate to the calyx-tube, sessile, 1- 

 celled ; style long or short, rarely 3 ; stigma entire or 3-fid ; ovules few or many, 

 inserted on 3-5 parietal placentas, sometimes confined to the upper part of the cell, 

 pendulous or ascending, anatropous, raphe lateral or ventral. FRUIT indehiscent or 

 capsular, 1 -celled, l-oo -seeded, 3-5-valved at the top or throughout its length, 

 valves alternating with the placentas. SEEDS usually few by arrest, oblong or 

 angled, ascending or pendulous, outer coat thin and fleshy or a torn aril ; testa 

 crustaceous or coriaceous, striate or rugose ; albumen copious, fleshy. EMBRYO axile ; 

 cotyledons oblong or orbicular or cordate, often foliaceous ; radicle short or long. 



1 This order is merely alluded to in the original regarded as a tribe, connecting Bixineie with Patsi- 

 R-ork at the end of Bixinces (p. 247), to which it is floreee. ED. 

 most closely allied, and of which it is perhaps best 



