402 



ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE NATURAL ORDKRS. 



wood ; differing botanically from Meliacea3 chiefly by their capsular 

 fruit, with several winged seeds in each cell. — • Ex. The Mahogany 

 (Swietenia Mahagoni) of tropical America, reaching to East Flor- 

 ida. Bark, &c. hitter, astringent, tonic, often aromatic and febrifugal. 

 782. Ord. liaacea! {Flax Family). Herbs, with entire and sessile 

 leaves, either alternate, opposite, or verticillate, and no stipules, ex- 

 cept minute glands. Flowers regular and symmetrical. Calyx of 

 three or five persistent sepals, strongly imbricated. Petals as many 

 as the sepals, convolute in asstivation. Stamens as many, as the 

 petals, and usually with as many intermediate teeth representing an 

 abortive series (Fig. 423), all united at the base into a ring, hypogy- 



nous. Ovary with as many styles and cells as there are sepals, 

 each cell with two suspended ovules ; the cells in the capsule each 

 more or less divided into two, by a false par- 

 tition which grows from the back (Fig. 750) ; 

 the spurious cells 

 one-seeded. Em- 

 bryo straight : 

 cotyledons flat, 

 fleshy and oily, 

 surrounded by a 

 ■Ex. Linum, the Flax, 

 the bark (flax) is of the highest importance : the seeds yield a 

 copious mucilage, and the fixed oil expressed from them is applied 

 to various uses in the arts. The general plan of the flower is the 

 same in the succeeding orders. 



thin albiTmen. 



The tough woody fibre of 



FIG. 748. Flowers of the common Flax. 749. Vertical section of a flower. 750. Diagram 

 of the same, in a transverse section. 751. Its 10-celled capsule transversely divided. 752. 

 Similar section of the incompletely 10-celled capsule of Linum perenne. 



