432 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 
base by the persistent calyx. The stone, hard, scorbiculate or ra- 
diate outwardly,’ 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 
embryo, with thick plano-convex cotyledons, and short superior 
radicle. 
Nitraria consists of shrubs, the species, not very numerous,” grow- 
ing in the salt plains of warm Western Asia, North Africa, and 
Australia, and whose aspect sometimes recalls that of certain species 
of Salsolacee, 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* are arranged in bunches of scorpioid cymes. 
XIII. CORIARIA SERIES (Fr., Redoul). 
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 preefloration, 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 
with very diverse nerve-shaped configuration, 
an interior crustaceous layer separating defi- 
nitely from the bony exterior layer. The meso- 
carp, often thin, is usually pulpy. 
2 Two or three, according to some authors, 
six or seven according to others.—Parr., #1. 
Ross., i. t. 50.—DEsr., Fl. Atl., i.372.— ANDR., 
Bot. Repos., t. 519.—Jaus. & Spacu, Ill. Pl. 
Or. iii. 189, t: 293-295.—Borss., F1. Or., i. 
918.—Oniv., Fl. Trop. Afr., i. 288.—Mr1Q., in 
Pl. Preiss., i. 164 (Zygophyllun:).—¥. MUEtt., 
Fl. Vict., 92, 227, t. Suppl. 7.—BENTE., Fl. 
Austral., i. 291.—Watp., Rep., i. 542; Ann., 
ii. 265; vii. 479. 
3 Small white or greenish, often fragrant. 
The fruits are red or blackish. 
4 Coriaria Ntissou., in Act. Acad. Par, 
(1711), t.12.—L., Gen., n. 458.—Apans., Fam. 
des P1., ii. 446.—J., Gen., 441.—Lamx., Dict., 
vi. 86; Suppl, iv. 656; JZ71., t. 822.—DC., 
Prodr., i, 739.—TwurpP., in Dict, Sc. Nat., At]. 
t. 288, 289.—Spacu, Suit. à Buffon, iii. 80.— 
Enpu., Gen., n. 5596.—PAYER, Organog., 49, 
t. 10.—B. H., Gen., 429.—SCHNIZL., Iconogr., 
xiv. t. 238.—LEM. & DCNE., Tr. Gen., 371.— 
H. By., in Adansonia, x. 318.—Heterocladus 
Turez., in Bull. Mosc, (1847), ii. 152.— Hete- 
rophylleia Turcz., op. cif. (1848), i, 591.— 
Deu KEUILL. (ex ADANS.). 
