476 



BOTANT. 



details. The general disposition of the smaller veins is well illustrated 

 by Fig. 369a.* 



568. — The sub-class Dicotyledones is composed of thirty- 

 six cohorts, containing in all from 150 to 200 natural orders. 

 Eor conTcnience, the cohorts are separated into three artifi- 

 cial groups-— the Apetalse, Gamopetalse, and Choripetalffi 

 (Polypetalae)— an arrangement which does violence to nature, 

 separating widely many orders which are evidently closely 

 related to each other. 



I. APETAL.iE. Plants whose flowers generally have but 

 a single floral envelope (calyx), 

 this even, in some cases, wanting. 

 569. Cohort 1. — Santalales. 

 Herbs, shrubs, or trees, mostly 

 parasitic, with inferior ovary, 

 generally naked ovules — i.e., no 

 integuments — and seeds usually 

 containing endosperm. 



Order Balanophorese. — Fleshy 

 leafless parasites, mostly of the trop- 

 ics. One species, Cynomorium coccin- 

 eum, of the Mediterranean region. Is 

 sometimes eaten. 



Order Santalacese. — Leafy herbs, 

 shrubs, or trees, mostly parasitic, num- 

 bering about 200 species, which are 

 distributed in temperate and tropical 

 regions. 



Comandra umiella'.a, a perennial herb, is our most common repre- 

 sentative of the order. 



Santalum album, the Sandalwood Tree of South Asia, attains a height 

 of seven to eight metres (35 feet). Its dark red wood is used in cabinet- 

 making, and for burning incense in Buddhist temples. Other species 

 from the Pacific islands also furnish sandalwood. 



The Quandang Nut of Australia is the edible fruit of a small tree, 

 Fusanus aouminatus. 



" the name of an imaginary something intermediate between primary 

 stem and root." 



* The student who wishes to study this subject fully should consult 

 the papers of Dr. Kttingshausen, published in Denkscliriften and 

 Sitzungsberiehte Wien. Kais. Akad. Wissen. They are excellently il- 

 lustrate^ with many " nature printed " plates. , 



Kg. 869a.— Fragment of a leaf of a 

 Dicotyledon iPsoralea bituminosa), 

 showing reticulated venation, r, 

 margin of leaf. X 40.— After De 

 Bary. 



