470 COEIAEIiCEiE — STACKHOUSIACE^. 



Underslirubs or trees, with alternate, simple, stipulate leaves, and 

 pedicels articulated in the middle. They grow in tropical countries, 

 and are remarkable for the large succulent prolongation of the recep- 

 tacle to which the carpels are attached. They fare generally bitter, 

 and some of them are used as tonics. Genera, 12 ; species, 140. 

 Examples — ^Ochna, Gomphia, Godoya. 



Order 56.— Coeiaeiace^, the Coriaria Family. {Poly-pet. Eypog.) 

 Flowers unisexual. Calyx campanulate, 5-parted ; aestivation imbri- 

 cate. Petals alternate with the calycine segments, very small, fleshy, 

 with a keel on the internal surface. Stamens 10 (fig. 636, p. 365) ; 

 filaments filiform, distinct; anthers dithecal, oblong. Ovary com- 

 posed usually of 5 carpels, attached to a thickened receptacle or gyno- 

 base, 5-oelled ; ovules solitary, pendulous ; style ; stigmas 5, long 

 and glandular. Fruit, consisting fof 5 monospermous, indehiscent 

 crustaceous carpels, enclosed by the enlarged petals. Seeds pendulous, 

 anatropal, exalbuminous ; embryo nearly straight ; cotyledons fleshy ; 

 radicle short and blunt. — Shrubs with opposite square branches, oppo- 

 site, simple, ribbed leaves, and scaly buds. They are found in small 

 numbers ' in the south of Europe, South America, India, and New 

 Zealand. Some of them are poisonous. The leaves of Goriaria myrti- 

 folia have been employed to adulterate Alexandrian Senna on the 

 Continent. The leaves are known from those of true Senna by being 

 3-ribbed, and by wanting the inequality at their base which charac- 

 terises true Senna. The leaves are used for dyeing black, and an in- 

 fusion of them gives a dark-blue with sulphate of iron. Coriaria rusei- 

 folia is the Toot or Tutu plant of New Zealand, the seeds and young 

 shoots of which are narcotico-acrid poisons. Genus, 1 ; species, 5. 

 Example — Coriaria. 



Sub-class II. — Oalyciploe^. 



In this Sub-class are included the polypetalous orders of Jussieu, 

 in which the stamens are not hypogynous, as well as some mono- 

 petalous and diclinous orders. A calyx and coroUa are present, in 

 other words, the plants are dichlamydeous ; the petals are distinct or 

 united, and the stamens are either attached to the calyx, and free 

 from the ovary, or they are placed above the ovary, — being perigynous 

 or epigynous. This sub-class, along with Thalamiflorae, comprises the 

 dialypetalse of Endlicher. Ther« are also included in it gamopetalous 

 plants in which the ovary is inferior. 



Section I. — PoLYPETAL.aB. Petals separate, stamens perigjmous or 

 epigynous. 



Order 57. — Stackhousiace^, the Stackhousia Family. (Poly- 

 pet. Perigyn.) Calyx, 5 -cleft, equal, with an inflated tube. Petals 

 5, equal, inserted at the top of the tube of the calyx, claws of the 



