236 CLASSIFICATION 



latex, young parts often rusty tomentose. Leaves 

 alternate, petioled, entire, coriaceous. Stipules, when 

 present, very caducous. Flowers regular. Sepals 

 connate in a calyx with 4 to 8 imbricated lobes, 

 sometimes in 2 series, the inner series imbricate and 

 the outer valvate, persistent. Petals connate in a 

 tube shorter than the calyx, the lobes as many as, 

 or two to four times as many as the calyx-lobes. 

 Stamens epipetalous, either in i series and as many 

 as and opposite the corolla-lobes, or in 2 to 3 series 



and twice or thrice as 

 many as the corolla- 

 lobes. Carpels connate 

 in a superior 2- to 8- 

 celled ovary. Fruit i- 

 to 8 - seeded berry. 

 Seeds exalbuminous 



Tig. 203. — Bakul {Mimusops Elengi') —corolla . . .^ 



spread out showing stamens and staminodia Wltfl USUally CrUSta- 



ceous testa. The Order 

 is wholly tropical. Common plants: sapota {Achras 

 Sapota), a native of America, cultivated in our gardens 

 for its edible fruit : mahua {Bassia latifolia), the dried 

 sweet waxy flowers of which are used as food by the 

 poor people of Chhota Nagpur and Behar and also 

 for distilling a kind of country liquor, while the seeds 

 yield a kind of oil known as "Vegetable butter", 

 largely used to adulterate ghee; bakul (Mimusops 

 Elengi) (fig. 203), a tree often cultivated for its hand- 

 some coriaceous leaves and fragrant flowers in 

 axillary fascicles; the sepals in 2 whorls; petals in 

 3 whorls of 8 each, the inner whorl forming a cone 

 over the stamens, the other two outer whorls being 

 really scales at the back of the petals of the inner 

 whorl; stamens 8, interspersed with a whorl of hairy 

 staminodia. 



