EXOGENOUS OR DICOTYLEDONOtTS PLANTS. 



383 



fruir Seeds one or more in each carpel, ■with a hard and brittle 

 testa: embryo minute, at the base of hard, ruminated albumen. 

 The four species of our so-called Papaw (Asimina) are our only rep- 

 resentatives of this chiefly tropical order, which furnishes the lus- 

 cious custard-apples of the East and West Indies, &c. Aromatic 

 properties, with some acridity in the bark, &c., prevail in the order. 

 Monodora yields the calabash-nutmeg. 



745. Ord. Myristicaceie {Nutmeg Family), consisting of a few tropi- 

 cal trees (which bear nutmegs), differs from Anonacese in having 

 monoecious or dioecious and apetalous flowers, &c. The aril and the 

 albumen of the seeds are fine aromatics. The common nutmeg is 

 the seed of Myristica moschata (a native of the Moluccas) deprived 

 of the testa : mace is the aril of the same species. The ruminated 

 albumen is nearly peculiar to this family and the Anonacefe. 



746. Ord. MenispermaceiE {Moonseed Family). Climbing or twin- 

 ing shrubby plants, with alternate and simple palmately-veined leaves, 

 destitute of stipules ; and small flowers in racemes or panicles, 

 mostly dioecious, the parts commonly in two or more rows of three 

 or four each. Calyx of three to twelve sepals, in one to three rows, 

 deciduous. Petals as many as the sepals or fewer, small, or some- 

 times wanting in the pistillate flowers. Stamens as many as the 

 petals, and opposite them, or two to four times as many : anthers 



often four-celled. Carpels usually several, but only one or two of 

 them commonly fructify, at first straight, but during their growth 



FIG. 659. Staminate flower of Menispermum Canadenee. 660. A" stamen, with its four- 

 lobed anther. 661. A pistillate flower of the same. 662. A solitary fruit. 663. Two drupes' 

 on the same receptacle, cut across ; one .through the pulpy exocarp only, the other through 

 the bony endocarp and seed. 664. A drupe divided vertically (the embryo here is turned the 

 wrong way). 665. The seed, and, 666, the coiled embryo detached. 



