Si NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



coinjjlotely, or even disaj^pear altogether.' The fruit is a cbiipc of 

 which the mesocarp is frequently thin, and the stone hard and bony, 

 with its walls often coutaiuing resiniferous hollows, and with one or 

 more mono- or dispermous cells. The seeds contain under then- thin 

 coats a fleshy albumen, sometimes of granular appearance, siu'- 

 rounding an axile embryo with elliptical cotyledons and superior 

 cylincb-ical radicle more or less long. 



JIoumiH {Vantancd) (/uktitcust 



90. Flower (î). Fig. 97. Long. sect, of flower. 



Thus comprised, the genus Iloiim/'ri, divided (principally according 

 to the number of the stamens) into five sections," which might 

 possibly be considered as distinct genera, contains some twenty 

 species ^ which except one belong to tropical America. All are 

 woody and generally glabrous and balsamic. They have alternate 

 simple leaves,* entire or crcnulatc, coriaceous, and exstipulate, 

 flowers of whitish colour, disposed in the axils of the leaves at 

 the summit of the branches in ramified or corymbiform cymes, 

 sometimes uniparoiis towards the apex. 



This small family, distinguished in 1819 by A. P. de Candolle,* 

 according to him contained only Linuni and Badiola, considered 

 formerly by A. L. de Jussicu,'' as '■'■ genera Caryophjllcis affinia.'''' 

 The Iliif/onias, ranged by the latter "^ among the 3Ialvaceœ, and by 

 most authors of this centiu-y after the Chlœnaceœ^ took finally a 



They have a double coat. 



2 HouMiui :J 

 sect. 5. I 



1. Auhrya (H. Bn). 



2. Sdccoglottis (Makt.). 



3. Hnmirium H. Bn. hoc AUor.). 



4. Vaiitaneoides (Rich.). 

 ^ 5. Vantanca Aubl.). 



3 Mart. Nov. Gtm. et Spec. ii. 142, t. 198 ; 146 

 {SaccoffloitU), 147 [Selleria). — A. Juss. in A. S, 

 K. Fl. Bras. Mc>: ii. 88, 90 (HiUcr in). —WALr. 



Aim. iv. 583, 585 {Saeeo^htlis). 



* In vernation often involute. 



^ Thêor Elém. éd. 1, 217; Proth-.i. 423, Ord. 

 2Z.—Linaccœ Lindl. Introd. ed 2, 89; Teg. 

 Kiiiyd. 485, Ord. 183. 



» Ge». (1789), 303. 



^ Op. at. 275. 



s DC. Prodr. i. 522.— Endl. Gen. lOlG.— 

 Lindl. Veg. Kinijd. 489 [Oxalul). 



