Cornus.] coRNACEffi. 225 



may be looked upon as naturally 4 or 6, having tlieir filaments forkeft, each fork 

 terminating in the single cell of an anther. Styles as many as ihe seij;ments of 

 the corolla, erect, united below ; sligmas simple, greenish. Berry globose, ob- 

 scurely lobed, pale green and shining, very juicy, half enclosed by the enlarged, 

 fleshy, adnate calyx, and crowned with the styles, 4- (sometimes, it is said, 5-) 

 celled.* Seed one in each cell, ovate, whitish and flattened, with a thin narrow 

 border, pendant at the summit of the cell from the very thick medial placenta, 

 and covered with gelatinous pulp. 



The herbage of Adoxa has a perceptible musky scent in moist weather, or when 

 wetted with dew or rain ; that of the flowers is less transient, more penetrating, 

 witii some pungency, reminding one a little of nitric acid. Notwithstanding the 

 rule laid down by Linnaeus, that the central or terminal flower gives the class and 

 order when differing in the number of its parts of fructification from the rest of 

 the inflorescence, the lateral flowers of Adoxa being the most numerous and usu- 

 ally decandrous, this plant should be referred to the tenth class in the artificial 

 system, for which alteration, if natural aflinity be allowed any weight in such 

 arrangement (as I think it ought whenever practicable, and not in palpable vio- 

 lation of the Linnasan fundamental principle of numbers), its relationship to Chry- 

 sosplenium and Saxifraga would he an additional sanction. The description of 

 the fruit, which is not commonly produced, was drawn up from fine specimens 

 gathered at St. John's, by Ryde. 



Order XXXVII. COENACE^, DeCartcZ. 



" Calyx-tube adnate with the ovary ; limb 4 — 5 toothed and 

 minute, or 4 — 5 lobed and valvate in sestivation. Petals 4, broad 

 at the base ; estivation valvular. Stamens 4, inserted with the 

 petals. Style filiform. Stigma simple. Ovary 2-celled ; ovules 

 solitary, pendulous. Drupe with a 1 — 2 celled nucleus. Seeds 

 with a fleshy albumen, and an embryo nearly its length. — Trees or 

 shrubs, rarely herbs. Leaves (except in one species) opposite, and 

 as well as the fruit beset with appressed hairs attached by the mid- 

 dle."— Br. Fl. 



I. CoBNUS, Linn. Cornel. Dogwood. 



" Calyx of 4 teeth. Petals 4, superior. Stannens 4. Nut of 

 the drupe with 2 cells and 2 seeds." — Br. Fl. 



1. C. sanguinea, L. Wild Cornel-tree. Dogwood. Dogberry- 

 bush. Arboreous, branches straight erect, leaves opposite ovate 

 or roundish ovate green on both sides downy beneath mucronate 

 acuminate about 9-nerved, cymes small flattish without an invo- 

 lucre, drupes globose (black). Sm. E. Fl i. 221. Br. Fl. p. 182. 

 Bab. Man. 139. E. B. iv. t. 249. Loud. Arb. Br. ii. 1011, fig. 

 761. Gidmp. und Hayne, Deutsch. Holtz. i. 13, t. 3. 



» Sir James Smith, who appears never to have seen the fruit of J^</oa;a^ de- 

 scribes it, with GEertner, whose figures are but indifferent, as one-celled. Uther 

 authors consider it very justly as 4-celled, the 4 angles of the placenta bemg very 

 evidently prolonged into complete though very narrow dissepiments, ihe squaie 

 mass occupying the centre, and to the top of which the seeds are attached, is quite 

 distinct from their pulpy envelope, and as much entitled to be called a placenta 

 as in any dry or capsular fruit whatever. 



2 G 



