93 



C arallica, Linn. The Coffee. A glabrous glossy shrub or small 

 tree. Braiujnes terete, or at the extremities rather compressed. 

 Leaves oval, or elliptical, acuminate, wedge-shaped at the base, 

 subcoriaceous, evergreen (usually persisting for three years), some- 

 what undulate, 3 to 8 by 11 to 3 inches ; lateral veins, 7 to 12 pairs ; 

 margins rather undulate ; petiole 2 to 6 lines long ; stipules broadly 

 ovate, apiculate, connate at the b?,se, 2 to 4 lines long. Mowers 

 fragrant, ^ to i inch long just before expansion, about half as long 

 after expansion, subsessile or very shortly pedicellate, 2 to 9 or more 

 together in very short axillary or lateral bracteolate clusters : bracteoles 

 ovate, the inner ones connate at the base of the pedicels, falling short 

 of the shallow subtruncate or obtusely 5-denticulate calyx limb. 

 Corolla white ; lobes oval, obtuse, or mucronulate, equalling or exceed- 

 ing the tube, spreading. Anthers rather shorter than the corolla- 

 lo^es, wholly exserted, fixed rather below the middle to the filament, 

 which are about l>al£ as long. Disk glabrous. Style about equalling 

 the unexpahded flower, bifid ; lobes linear, narrower towards the tip. 

 Berry ellipsoidal, ^ inch or more long, red when ripe. Seeds from 

 4 to 6 lines long. 



Order COMPOSITiE. 



This is the most extensive family amongst flowering plants, 

 niimber of ppecifes 10,000 in 800 genera, and represented in every 

 quarter of the globe and in every variety of station. 



Flowers or florets collected together in a head (rarely reduced to 

 a single floret), surrounded by au involucre of several bracts, either in 

 one row or imbricated in several rows, the whble having the appearance 

 of a single flower. Beceptacle on which the florets are inserted either 

 nated or bearing chaffy scales or hairs or bristles betweeli the florets. 

 In each floret the calyx is wanting or converted itito a, pappus, or ring 

 of hairs or scales on the top of the ovary. Corollas either all 

 hermaphrodite, tubular, and 5 or rarely 4-to6thed (heads discoid) 

 or all hermaphrodite and Uc/ulate, that is, with a slender tube and a 

 flat strap-shaped lamina, or those of the centre or disk tubular and 

 hermaphrodite or male, and those of the circumference either ligulate 

 and female or neuter, forming a ray (heads radiate), or filifprm and 

 female (heads disooid but heterogamous). Stamens, 5 rarely 4, in- 

 serted in the tube of the corolla, the anthers linear ahd united in a 

 sheath round the style (except in Xafithium or where more or less 

 imperfect), 2-celled, opening inwards by longitudinal slits, the 

 connective usually produced at the top into a small erect appendage, 

 the anther obtuse or sagittate at the base, the basal lobes sometimes 

 prolonged into short and acute or long very fine and hair-like points 

 ot lobes called tails. Ovary inferior, with a single erect ovule. 

 Style filiform, usually divided' at the top into 2 short stigmatic 

 branches. Fruit a small, dry seed-like nut or achene, crowned by 

 the pappus or naked. Seed erect, without albumeti. Embryo straight 

 or rarely curved. Radicle inferior. Herbs, shtubs, or very rarely 

 small trees, wjth alternate or opposite leaves without stipules. Flower- 

 beads terminal or very rarely axillary, solitary or in panicles, usually 

 corymbose, sometimes reduced to clusters or compound heads, the 

 general inflorescence often centrifugal, the inflorescence within, the 

 head always centripetal. 



[Considering the vast number of species contained m this order, it 

 will be found divided into but few tribes. These, however, are again 



