LXIX. VACCINIACE^. sUh 



Order LXIX. VACCINIACEiE. 



Calyx-tube ovoid, adnate to the ovary ; limb 5-fid, usually persistent. Corolla 

 tubular, 5-toothed, or shortly oampanulate with 5 long segments, deciduous. 

 Stamens 10, epigynous, free ; anthers opening by apical pores, often produced 

 upwards into 2 tubes opening by slits from the apex. Ovary inferior, 5 -celled or 

 falsely 10-celled. Style cylindrical, stigma simple ; ovules many (rarely few) at 

 the inner angle of each cell. Fruit a berry, rarely dry, 5 or falsely 10-celled. 

 Seeds many, or several (rarely 1) in each cell, small, compressed, albuminous ; 

 raqlicle next the hilum. — Shrubs or small trees ; sometimes epiphytes jvith the 

 stems greatly thickened at the base. Leaves alternate or falsely whorled, entire 

 or .serrate. Stipules none. Flowers racemose or axillary and solitary, pedicels 

 1-bracteate and often 2-bracteolate, often thickened and articulate beneath the 

 ovary." — Clarke in Hook. Fl. Brit. Ind. 



Plants of this Order are chiefly natives of cold and temperate regions. 



1. AGAPETES, D.Don. 

 (From agapetos, beloved ; in reference to the plants being showy.) 



Calyx-tube globose; limb 5-fid or 5-partite, persistent. Corolla tubular or 

 oampanulate, shortly or deeply 5-lobed, red, often with transverse marks, or the 

 lobes greenish- white. Stamens 10, filaments usually short ; anthers elliptic, 

 produced upwards in 2 long beaks opening by apical pores or slits, often spurred 

 behind. Ovary 5-,celled or spuriously 10-celled ; style cylindric, stigma capitate, 

 ovules very many. Berry globose, succulent or nearly dry, 5-celled or spuriously 

 10-celled, often opening by 10 pores round the disk within the calyx-teeth. Seeds 

 very many, ellipsoid, outer coat very lax. — Shrubs, often epiphytic; stem, often 

 greatly thickened at the base. Leaves alternate, sometimes falsely whorled, 

 from linear to elliptic, entire or toothed, sessile or shortly petiolated, often with 

 glands at the apex of the petiole, usually coriaceous. Flowers axillary, corym- 

 bose fascicled or solitary ; pedicel often thickened or articulate under the ovary ; 

 bracts small. — Fl. Brit. Ind. iii. 443. 



Natives of India, Borneo, Fiji, New Guinea and Queensland. 



1. A. IWEeiniana (after, Dr. G. A. Mein), F. v. M. Vict. Nat. Mar. 

 1887. Tall, somewhat climbing, glabrous throughout. Leaves rather large, 

 scattered, on short stalks, coriaceous, from almost lanceolate to roundish- 

 ovate, acuminate, generally rounded at the base, not denticulate, shining on both 

 sides ; dark-green above, pale-green beneath and there dotted with mJnute 

 scattered glands, strongly 5 -nerved from near the base, the veins amply reticu- 

 lated and partly prominent. Pedicels axillary or lateral, 3- or 2 together or 

 solitary, with 2 minute deltoid bracteoles near the base. Calyx campanular, 

 semi-ovate, separable by articulation from the pedicel, almost truncate, only 

 minutely denticulate. Corolla several times longer than the calyx, dark-red, 

 broadly tubular, terminated by 5 very short almost deltoid lobes. Stamens 10, 

 enclosed ; filaments glabrous, hardly half as long as the anthers, fiat, semi- 

 connate in pairs and with their dilated portion adherent to the base of the 

 corolla. Anthers erect, free, fixed above their base, fully half as long as the 

 corolla, cylindrio-linear, without any appendages, their lower portion subtile- 

 rough and at the blunt base somewhat bent forward, their upper portion pajer, 

 smooth, bifid, each division pointed and opening with a longitudinal fissure. 

 Style filiform, glabrous ; stigma minute, undivided. Ovary exceeded by the 

 limb of the calyx, depressed and glabrous at the summit. Fruit almost oam- 

 panulate in outline, rather hard, 5-celled, placentas turgid. Seeds rhomboid 

 or clavate^oyate, pale-brownish, shining, reticulate. — F. v. M. I.e. 

 Hab. : Summit of Mount Bellenden Ker, Sayer and Davidson. 



