172 RHAMNACEiE. 



Shrubs much branched, glabrous, with spinescent branch- 

 lets. Leaves alternate, pinnately veined, obovate or oblong, 

 subsessile, rather coriaceous, deciduous. Stipules minute 

 and caducous. Flowers small, greenish-white, solitary or 

 two or three in a fascicle in the axils of the leaves, on very 

 short peduncles. 



Etymology. The genus was dedicated to Ant. Condal, a Spanish phy- 

 sician, who accompanied LcEfling in his journey up the Orinoco. 



Geographical Distribution, &c. Condalia was founded by Cavanilles 

 upon a single Chilian undershrub, the C. microphylla ; to which Sprengel 

 added the dubious C. paradoxa, from Monte Video, which probably be- 

 longs to some very different genus. The Texan plant, recently figured by 

 Hooker, appears to be a genuine species of the genus, although it has much 

 larger leaves, sometimes tetramerous flowers, the ovary as well as the drupe 

 commonly only one-celled, and the whole calyx persistent. It forms a shrub 

 of considerable size, and in Northern Mexico, according to Dr. Gregg, it 

 becomes a tree of twenty feet in height. The genus is scarcely sufficiently 

 distinct from Zizyphus ; from which it differs principally in the absence of 

 petals, the entirely free ovary, and the pinnate venation of the leaves. 



Properties. The black fruit of C. obovata, called capul by the Mexi- 

 cans, like that of Zizyphus, is edible, sweet and pleasant, according to the 

 memoranda of Dr. Gregg, who found it from Mataraoros to Monterey. 



PLATE 164. Condalia obovata, Hook.; — a branch of the natural size, 

 in flower and unripe fruit ; from Texas, Wright. 



1. Diagram in a cross-section of a flower-bud and ovary. 



2. A flower, a flower-bud, part of a leaf, &c., magnified. 



3. Vertical section of a flower, magnified, showing the solitary ovule. 



4. A stamen more magnified, outside view. 



5. The same, seen from within. 



6. A drupe, with the persistent calyx, of the natural size. 



7. The same, enlarged. 



8. Vertical section of the same through the seed and embryo, magnified. 



9. Transverse section of the same. 



10. Magnified transverse section of a drupe, which exhibited the vestige 



of a second cell. 



11. Embryo detached, more magnified. 



12. Diagram of a flower of Condalia microphylla, with its two-celled 



ovary. 



