CIX. CACTE^. 



457 



horizontal, anatropous. Capsule membranous, crowned by the calyx-limb and 

 styles. Seeds numerous, small, oblong ; testa reticulate and foveolate ; hilum bearing 

 a membranous cupuliform strophiole ; albumen scanty. Embeto cylindric ; cotyledons 

 very short ; raddcle long, near the hilum. 



*Dati8ca. 



GENEEA. 

 Tetrameles. 



Octomeles. 



Datisceee have a certain aiBnity with Beffoniacets (which see). Some botanists have placed them 

 near Loasece on account of their epigyny and the arrangement of the placentas ; others near Hesedacece, on 

 account of the one-celled ovary gaping at the top from the bud, and the parietal placentation, but there are 

 no other points of affinity. The genera of this little order are singularly scattered over the globe ; Batisca 

 inhabits West Asia and Nepal ; Tricerastes [which is Datisea itself] is met with in California, Tetrameles is 

 a large tree of Java and India, and Ociomefes is Malayan. The herbage oi Datisea cannabina is nauseous, 

 purgative and emetic ; it is frequently used in Italy for intermittent fevers and disorders of the stomach. 

 The root contains a peculiar starch named by chemists datiscine. Nothing is known of the properties 

 of Tetrameles. 



CIX. CACTEjE. 

 (Cacti, Jussieu. — Cactoide^, Ventenat. — Nopale^, D.C.) 



Petals rmmerous, several-seriate, epigynous, free or cohering below. Stameits 

 numerous, mamy-seriate, inserted at the base of the corolla. Ovaet inferior, 1-celled, 



Echinocttdus Decaimeanus. 



Ehipmtis funalit. 



