106 



ORDER GXXXIX. DATISGAGEiE. 



Flowers usually dioecious, sometimes hermaphrodite or 

 polygamous : calyx of male flowers 3 — 9-cleft, of her- 

 maphrodite and female ones adnate to the ovary, and 

 3 — 8-toothed at the apex : corolla none, but small teeth 

 sometimes in the first age of the flower alternate with 

 the calycine lobes, interior to them, afterwards indistinguish- 

 able, or stamens alternate with the calycine lobes, some- 

 times holding the place of a corolla in male and hermaphro- 

 dite flowers : stamens 3 — 11, in male flowers inserted on the 

 calyx, in hermaphrodite flowers 3 only, alternating with the 

 calycine teeth, in females none : anthers 2-celled, erect, in- 

 serted on the filaments by a point at the back, cells dehiscing 

 lengthwise extrorsely : ovary in male flowers, scarcely any in 

 hermaphrodite, and female ones inferior, 1-celled, sometimes 

 half-open by fissures at the apex : placentae parietal, alter- 

 nating with the calycine lobes : styles opposite the lobes of 

 the calyx, papuliferous inside at the top, sometimes 2-parted, 

 divisions linear, papillose : ovules many, anatropal, some- 

 what horizontal : capsule membranaceous, subdehiscent within 

 the teeth of the calyx : seeds oblong, very numerous, small : 

 testa striated lengthways, and impressed with dots : albumen 

 sparing : embryo cylindric : radicle long : cotyledons very 

 short. — Herbs or trees : leaves exstipulate, alternate, usually 

 unequally pinnate, rarely palmatinerved, and somewhat un- 

 equal-sided : flowers smallish, arranged in the axils of the 

 leaves, or together with the racemes, or unisexual indefinite 

 spikes, fascicled, very shortly pedicelled, the central flower oi 

 each fascicle opening first. 



GENUS I. TETRAMBLES. 



Dlcecia Tetrandria. Sex: Si/st: 



Beriv. Erom Tetras, four, and Melos, a limb, alluding to the 

 four divisions of the perianth. 



Gen. Chab. Elowers dioecious. Male: calyx 4-cleft: sta- 

 mens 4, opposite the calycine lobes, longer than them : anthers 



