432 NATURAL BISTORT OF PLANTS. 



base by the persistent calyx. The stone, hard, scorbiculate or ra- 

 diate outwardly, 1 usually contains one monospermous cell, and often 

 opens at the summit into six subulate valves, alternately wide and 

 narrow. The seed contains under its coats a fleshy exalbuminous 

 embiyo, with thick plano-convex cotyledons, and short superior 

 radicle. 



Nitraria consists of shrubs, the species, not very numerous, 2 grow- 

 ing in the salt plains of warm Western Asia, North Africa, and 

 Australia, and whose aspect sometimes recalls that of certain species 

 of Sal-solaces, growing in the same conditions. The branches, often 

 whitish and rigid, are sometimes armed with spines. The leaves 

 are alternate or fasciculate, simple, entire or trifid at the summit, 

 contracted at the base, slightly fleshy, accompanied by two small 

 stipules. The flowers 3 are arranged in bunches of scorpioid C} T mes. 



XIII. CORIARIA SERIES (Fr„ Bedoul). 



Coriaria" (figs. 521-525) has regular, hermaphrodite, and- polyga- 

 mous flowers. In the hermaphrodite flowers of the European species 

 of the genus, Coriaria, with Myrtle leaves, we may observe a tole- 

 rably elevated conical receptacle, bearing at the base five sepals, 

 arranged in the bud in quincuncial prsefloration, and five alternate 

 short, thick, fleshy petals, very slightly imbricated, or not even touch- 

 ing each other by their edges in the bud. The androceum is com- 

 posed of ten hypogynous stamens, five of which, superposed to the se- 

 pals, are inserted lower and more externally than the other five, which 

 are shorter, and superposed to the petals. Each stamen is formed 



1 There are three more or less distinct faces ^ 3 Small white or greenish, often fragrant. 



with very diverse nerve-shaped configuration, The fruits are red or blackish, 



an interior crustaceous layer separating dtfi- 4 Coriaria Nissol., in Act. Acad. Par. 



nitely from the bony exterior layer. The meso- (1711), 1. 12. — L., Gen., n. 458. — Adans., Fam. 



carp, often thin, is usually pulpy. des PI., ii. 446. — J., Gen., 411. — Laaik., Diet., 



- Two or three, according to some authors, vi. 86; Suppl., iv. 656; III., t. 822. — DC, 



six or seven according to others. — Pali., Fl. Prodr., i. 739. — Tpjrp., in Diet. Sc. Nat., Atl., 



Ross., i. t, 50.— Desf., Fl. Atl, i.372.— Andr., t, 288, 289.— Spach, Suit, a Buffon, Hi. 80.— 



Pot. Repos., t. 519. — Jat:b. & Spacit, III. PI. Endl., Gen., n. 5596. — Payer, Organog., 49, 



Or., iii. 139, t. 293-295.— Boiss., Fl. Or., i. t. 10.— B. H., Gen., 429.— Schnizl., Ieonogr., 



918.— Owv., Fl. Trap. Afr., i. 288.— Miq., in xiv. t. 238.— Lem. & Dcne., Tr. Gen., 371.— 



PI. Preiss., i. 164 (Zygophyllum). — V. Muell., H. Bn., in Adansonia, x. 318. — Heterocladic 



Fl. Vict., 92, 227, t. Suppl- 7.— Benth., Fl. Turcz., in Bull. Mosc. (1817), ii. 152— Rete- 



Austral., i. 291. — Walp., Rep., i. 512; Ann., rophylleia Turcz., op. cit. (1818), i. 591. — 



ii. 265; vii. 479. Deu Feuill. (ex Adans.). 



