534 CXXXVI. MYESINE^. 



dotted, exstipulate. Flowers 5 , often imperfect through arrest, regular, usually 

 axillary, umbelled, corymbose, fascicled, racemed or panicled, often covered with 

 glands. Caltx 4-5-fid or -partite. Corolla monopetalous, or sometimes poly- 

 petalous, campanulate or rotate, isostemonous. Stamens inserted on the corolla- 

 tube or throat, and opposite to its lobes, sometimes alternating with as many petaloid 

 scales {staminodes) ; filaments short, free, or more or less cohering in a tube ; anthers 

 2-celled, sometimes connivent, dehiscence longitudinal or apical. Ovart free or 

 inferior, 1-celled ; placenta basilar or central, sessile or stipitate ; style short, simple ; 

 stigma usually undivided ; ovules fixed to the placenta by a ventral, linear, or punc-. 

 tiform hiluni, exceptionally anatropous {Monotheca). Fruit a drupe or berry, usually 

 few-seeded, or 1-seeded by arrest. Seeds with a simple integument, often mucila- 

 ginous, sometimes with many embryos. Embrto cylindric, usually arched, parallel 

 to the hilum in the many-seeded fruits, and transverse in the single-seeded ; albu- 

 men fleshy or horny ; cotyledons semi- cylindric, or flat and sub-foliaceous ; radicle 

 terete, longer than the cotyledons, -inferior or vague. 



Tribe I. Ardisie^. — Estivation contorted. Anthers introrse. Ovary free.- 

 Fruit 1-seeded. 



PRINCIPAL GENERA. 

 Myrsine. * Ardiaia. 



Tribe II. M^se^. — ^Slstivationinduplicate-valvate. Anthers introrse. Ovary 

 inferior. Fruit many-seeded. 



GENUS. 



Msesa. 



Tribe III. Theophraste^.—- ^Estivation imbricate. Staminodes 5. Anthers 

 extrorse. Fruit many-seeded. Placenta sometimes minute, and ovules anatropous 



{Monotheca). 



PRINCIPAL GENERA. 

 Theoplirasta. * Jacquinia. Monotheca. 



We have indicated the affinity between Myrsinea and Primulacets, which is so close that they might 

 be united (see Prinmlaceee). 



Myrsinets principally inhabit the tropical zone of Asia and America; they are rare beyond the tropics, 

 at the Cape of Good Hope, in Australia, [A'ew Zealand,] Japan and the Canaries. Theophrasta is an 

 American genus. Masa belongs to the Old World; Ardisia to the hot regions of Asia, Africa and 

 America, and extends to the Canaries. The fruit of some species of Ardisia is edible. The leaves of 

 Jacquinia are used in America to stupefy fish, like the rhizomes of Cyclamen, and their fruit is poisonous. 

 The seeds of J. armillaris were strung like pearls by the Caribbeans to form bracelets. The crushed seeds 

 of Theophrasta Jttssieui, called at St. Domingo Petit Coco, are used for making bread. 



Near Myrsinece is placed the genus Aigiceraa, which comprises shrubs growing on the ahol'es of tropical 

 Asia and Oceania, with alternate leaves and hermaphrodite flowers in an umbel. The corolla, stamens 



