440 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 
interior radicle, descending.—An insipid, punctuate shrub, with 
alternate, simple leaves.—(1 genus.) 
In these fourteen series, comprising a hundred and twenty-three 
genera,’ the characters which serve to separate them from each other 
are, as we have seen : those drawn from the consistence of the stem,” 
the arrangement of the leaves upon it, the presence or absence of » 
stipules, the bitter flavour of the parts (particularly the leaves), or 
the existence of glandular-pellucid punctures, generally the channel 
of the aromatic or fetid odour ;* the mode of inflorescence, herma- 
phrodite or declinous nature of the flowers, the shape of the floral 
receptacle, and consequently the insertion of the stamens ;’ the 
number of parts in the perianth and their prefloration, the number 
of stamens and of the verticils according to which they are arranged, 
the independence or union of their filaments, the presence or absence 
at their base of an interior scale, and of a gland at the summit of the 
anthers sometimes fertile sometimes sterile. The form and size of the 
disk, hypogynous or rarely perigynous ; the independence or union 
of the carpels in all their extent, or only in the ovary; the number 
of the ovules, their direction and that of their various parts, their 
anatropy, more or less complete, or almost nil.’ The consistence 
and mode of dehiscence of the pericarp, the presence or absence of 
alkumen in the seeds, and the straight or curved form of the 
embryo. 
Almost all these genera belong to warm countries. 
This is the 

1 Deducting those insufficiently known, or 
having been wrongly ascribed to this group, and 
which besides the doubtful types already con- 
sidered are the following :— 
1. Pseudiosma (DC., Prodr., i. 718, n. 75 ;— 
A. Juss., in Mém. Mus., xii. 519;—Enp1., 
Gen., n. 5981), proposed as Diosma asialica 
Lour. (#7. Coch,, 200), a plant excluded from 
the genus Diosma by DE CANDOLLE, unknown to 
us, and belonging perhaps to the genus Hvodia. 
2. Huegelia (R. BR. in Flind. Voy., ii. 
546;— Enpz., Gen. n. 6013), a plant with 
10-merous perigynous calyx and corolla (which 
is perhaps a species of Homalium ?). 
3. Amblyorhinum (Turcz., in Bull. Mose, 
(1852), 168) wrongly cited (Wazp., Ann., vii. 
506) among the Rutacee, is a species of 
Valeriana. 
4. Systemon (RxG., Ind. Sem. Hort. Petrop. 
(1856), 38 ;—Wate., Ann. vii. 505), which we 
have recognised from an authentic specimen for 
a species of Heritiera, 
5, Bouzetia Montrous, in Mém. Acad. 
Lyon, x. 192.—B, H., Gen., 989 (Suriana ?). 
* Their structure, although so interesting, has 
not been much studied. [See Mirp., Ælém. de 
Physiol, Végét., t. 13, 1 (Ailantus) ;—LiNpz., 
Veg. Kingd., 479 (Guaiacum)]. ‘TréCUuz has 
carefully studied the vessels proper of Ailantus, 
Plelea, and Brucea (in Comp. Rend. Acad. 
Se., Ixv. 17; in Adansonia, ix, 121).—Ozrv., 
Stem. Dicot., 9. 
% Upon the value of these characters see 
Adansonia, x. 300. 
4 They are generally hypogynous; but when 
the floral receptacle becomes concave this 
arrangement is not very noticeable; it is, how- 
ever, clearly defined in several Boronias and 
Diosmas. 
5 Several Boronias are almost completely 
anatropous, especially Boronella and Zieridium 
(see Adansonia, x. 302). 
