CII. SAMYDACB^. 441 



Trapa. Toung fruit (mag.). Trapa. Eipe fruit (mag.). Trapa. Petal (mag.). 



bent, superior, piercing the top of the fruit in germination ; plumule very small, 

 concealed within the small cotyledon. 



ONLY GENUS. 

 Trapa. 



Trapea are closely related to HaloragecB (see this family). T. nutans, tlie Water Chestnut or 

 Calthrop, inhabits stagnant water in Central and Southern Europe. Its seeds afford a farinaceous food, 

 as do those of the Kashmirian T. hisinnosa, and the Cbinese 2'. bicomis, called by the natives Ling 

 or Ki-chi. 



CII. SAMYDACE^.' 



(HOMALlNEiE, Undl.) 



[Trees or shuubs, glabrous, or pubescent or tomentose. Leaves petioled, simple, 

 alternate, distichous, quite entire or serrate, teeth sometimes gland-tipped ; stipules 

 email, usually deciduous or 0. Flowers g , regular, inconspicuous, raeemed, 

 fascicled or panicled, pedicels articulated and 2-bracteolate. Caltx coriaceous, per- 

 sistent, tube usually free ; lobes 3-7, imbricate or valvate. Petals as many as the 

 calyx-lobes, and like them, rarely more or 0, perigynous, imbricate in bud. Disk 

 cupular, annular or glandular. Stamens definite or indefinite, l-oo -seriate, usually 

 alternating with staminodes, equidistant or collected in fascicles ; filaments filiform 

 or capillary, free or connate ; anthers didymous or oblong, introrse or extrorse, 

 dehiscence longitudinal. Ovaet free, rarely adnate to the calyx-tube, sessile, 1- 

 celled ; style long or short, rarely 3 ; stigma entire or 3-fid ; ovules few or many, 

 inserted on 3-5 parietal placentas, sometimes confined to the upper part of the cell, 

 pendulous or ascending, anatropous, raphe lateral or ventral. Fruit indehiscent or 

 capsular, 1 -celled, l-oo -seeded, 3-5-valved at the top or throughout its length, 

 valves alternating with the placentas. Seeds usually few by arrest, oblong or 

 angled, ascending or pendulous, outer coat thin and fleshy or a torn aril ; testa 

 crustaceous or coriaceous, striate or rugose ; albumen copious, fleshy. Embryo axile ; 

 aotyledons oblong or orbicular or cordate, often foliaceous ; radicle short or long. 



'This order is merely alluded to in the original regarded as a tribe, connecting Binnete with Pa^si- 

 work at the end of Sixineis (p. 247), to which it is florea. — En. 

 most closely allied, and of which it is perhaps best 



