15,3 



ORDER C. EBEXAGE^. 



Trees, shrubs or uijdershrubs without milk ; leaves alternate 

 or sub-opposite, entire, exstipulate, short petioled ; cymes axil- 

 lary, rarely terminal, in the males few or many-flowered, one 

 flower evidently terminal; in the female, one-flowered by the 

 lateral flowers aborting ; pedicels articulated at the apex ; fe- 

 males usually larger, with the calyx growing with the fruit ; 

 flowers, by abortion, usually unisexual, rarely bisex:ual, the- male 

 with » rudimentary ovary, the female with sterile stamens ;- 

 calyx 3-7-lobed, nearly equal, persistent; corolla m.onopetalous, 

 somewhat coriaceous, usually pubescent externally and glabrous, 

 within; limb 3-'7-lobed, imbricated in aestivation ; stamens de- 

 finite, either arising from the corolla or hypogynous, twice as, 

 many as the segments of the corolla, sometimes four times as 

 many, or the same number and then alternate with them, often 

 inserted in pairs near the bottom of the tube and those neither- 

 opposite nor alternate ; filaments simple in the hermaphrodite, 

 species, generally doubled in the polygamous and dioecious ones, 

 both their divisions bearing anthers but the inner generally 

 smaller ; anthers attached by their base, generally lanceolate, 

 2-celled, dehiscing lengthwise, sometimes bearded ; pollen round, 

 smooth : ovary sessile without any disk, several-celled, the cells 

 jeach ha^ng one or two ovules, pendulous from the apex ; style 

 divided, seldom simple ; stigmas bifid or siniple ; fruit fleshy 

 round, or oval by abortion, often few-seeded, its pericarp often 

 opening in a regular manner; seed with a membranaceous testa, 

 of the same figure as the albumen, which is cartilaginous and 

 white ; embryo in. the axis or but little out of it, straight, white 

 generally more than half as long as the albumen ; cotylecjpna 

 foliaceous, generally somewhat veiny, lying close together, or 

 occasionally slightly separate ; radicle taper, of middling length 

 or long, superior, turned towards the hilum. 



