476 



BOTANT. 



details. The general disposition of the smaller veins is well illustrated 

 by Fig. 369a.* 



568. — The sub-class Dicotyledones is composed of thirty- 

 six cohorts, containing in all from 150 to 200 natural orders. 

 Por convenience, the cohorts are separated into three artifi- 

 cial groups — the Apetalae, Gamopetalae, and Choripetalse 

 (Polypetalae) — an arrangement which does violence to nature, 

 separating widely many orders which are evidently closely 

 related to each other. 



I. AVETKLM. Plants whose flowers generally have but 

 a single floral envelope (calyx), 

 this even, in some cases, wanting. 



569. Cohort 1. — Santalales. 



Herbs, shrubs, or trees, mostly 

 parasitic, with inferior ovary, 

 generally naked ovules — i.e., no 

 integuments — and seeds usually 

 containing endosperm. 



Order Balanophoreee. — Flesliy 

 leafless parasites, mostly of the trop- 

 ics. One species, Cynomorium coccin- 

 eum, of the Mediterranean region, is 

 sometimes eaten. 



Order Santalacese. — Leafy herbs, 

 shrubs, or trees, mostly parasitic, num- 

 bering about 300 species, which are 

 distributed in temperate and tropical 

 regions. 



Comandra umbella'a, a perennial herb, is our most common repre- 

 sentative of the order. 



Santalum album, the Sandalwood Tree of South Asia, attains a height 

 of seven to eight metres (25 feet). Its dark red wood is used in cabinet- 

 making, and for burning incense in Buddhist temples. Other species 

 from the Pacific islands also furnish sandalwood. 



The Quandang Nut of Australia is the edible fruit of a small tree, 

 Fusanus aeuminatus. 



" the name of an imaginary something intermediate between primary 

 stem and root." 



* The student who wishes to study this subject fully should consult 

 the papers of Dr. Ettingshausen, published in Denkachriften and 

 SitzungsbericJite Wien. Kais. Akad. Wissen. They are excellently il- 

 lustrated with many " nature printed" plates. 



Fig. 3690.— Fragment of a leaf of a 

 Dicotyledon {Psoralea bituminosa), 

 showing reticulated venation, r, 

 margin of leaf, x 40.— After De 

 Bary. 



