CCXX. CEKATOPHYLLE^. 735 



introrse, opposite, dehiscence longitudinal ; filaments keeled, united by their base. 

 OVARY sessile, 3-gonous or sub-globose, 1-celled ; stigma terminal, sessile, obtuse or 

 depressed, furrowed or sub-lobed, deciduous ; ovule solitary, suspended near the top 

 of the cavity, orthotropous. DRUPE fleshy, sub-globose or 3-gonous ; epicarp thick ; 

 endocarp thin, fragile. SEED pendulous, integument finely membranous. EMBRYO 

 antitropous, minute, included in the top of a fleshy copious albumen ; cotyledons very 

 short, divaricate ; radicle inferior. 



PRINCIPAL GENERA. 

 Hedyosmum. * Chloranthus. Sarcandra. Ascarina. 



Chlorant/iacece are very near Piperaccce (p. 731). They also approach Saururece in the achlamydeous 

 flower, the filaments adnate to the ovary, orthotropous ovule, and copious albumen. They are separated 

 by the fewer stamens, 1-celled ovary, solitary pendulous ovule, woody stem, and opposite leaves. 

 Payer has erroneously described and figured as anatropous the ovule of Chloranthus (Organ., p. 423, 

 tab. 90). 



This little family is [chiefly] tropical. Chloranthus and Sarcandra grow in hot climates and especially 

 in the Asiatic islands. Ascarina inhabits the Society Islands [and New Zealand], Hedyosmum America. 



Chloranthacea; are aromatic, and classed among excitants. The root of C. officinalis, which grows in 

 the damp forests of Java, has a very penetrating odour of camphor, and a sub-bitter aromatic taste ; it is 

 renowned in Java as an antispasmodic and febrifuge. The celebrated botanist Blume found it efficacious 

 in the treatment of the fatal intermittent fever which, in 1824, killed 30,000 natives, and of the typhus 

 fever which, in 1825, devastated several provinces of that island. The young shoots and the leaves of 

 Hedyosmum nutans and arborescens are used in Jamaica in popular medicine as antispasmodics and 

 digestives. 



CCXX. CERATOPIIYLLE^E, S. FT. Gray. 



FLOWERS monoecious, sessile in the axils of the leaves, involucrate, achlamydeous. 

 ANTHERS oo . OVARY ~\ -celled, l-ovuled ; OVULE pendulous, orthotropous, ALBUMEN 

 0. EMBRYO antitropous, thick ; RADICLE inferior ; PLUMULE polyphyllous. 



Aquatic submerged HERBS, much branched ; stem and branches cylindric, jointed- 

 knotty. LEAVES whorled, sessile, exstipulate, dissected; segments 2-3-chotomous, 

 filiform, acute, finely toothed. FLOWERS achlamydeous, monoecious, sessile in the 

 axils of the leaves, those of each sex enclosed separately in a 1 0-1 2-partite involucre 

 with linear equal entire or cut segments. FLOWERS $ : ANTHERS oo , crowded in the 

 centre of the involucre, sessile, ovoid-oblong, 2-3-cuspidate at the top ; cells 2, colla- 

 teral, buried in a cellular mass, rupturing irregularly. FLOWERS ? : OVARY solitary, 

 sessile, sides cuspidate a little above the base, 1-celled ; style terminal, continuous with 

 the ovary, attenuated, tip with unilateral stigmatic papillae ; ovule solitary/pendulous 

 from the top of the cell, orthotropous. NUT coriaceous, enclosed in the persistent 

 involucre, armed with 2 basilar accrescent points, and terminated by the persistent 

 style. SEED pendulous ; testa finely membranous, thickened around the hilum, 

 exalbuminous. EMBRYO antitropous ; cotyledons oval, thick ; radicle very short, 

 inferior ; plumule herbaceous, sub-stipitate, polyphyllous, equalling the cotyledons. 



ONLY GENUS. 

 Ceratophyllum. 



