420 MANUAL OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



Capsicum, Brazilian-Quina, &c. This family 

 contains several innocuous plants. 

 8. Family. — Olives (Oleacese). Trees or shrubs ; 

 leaves opposite, simple or compound ; flowers 

 in terminal or axillary racemes or panicles, 

 sometimes unisexual ; calyx persistent ; co- 

 rolla 4-cleft ; aestivation somewhat valvate ; 

 stamens 2, rarely 4, free ; ovary simple, 2- 

 celled ; stigma entire or bifid ; fruit drupa- 

 ceous, baccate, or capsular, sometimes winged ; 

 seeds with abundant albumen ; cotyledons 

 leafy. Mostly frequent temperate regions, 

 but a few are tropical. In this family are 

 found the Olive, yielding olive-oil, the Flower- 

 ing-Ash, affording manna ; also the Common- 

 Ash, Common-Lilac, Privet, &c. 



V. ORDER. — Gentianals (Gentianales). 

 Flowers dichlamydeous, monopetalous ; placentse 

 axile or parietal ; embryo minute, or with the coty- 

 ledons much smaller than the radicle, lying in abun- 

 dant albumen. 

 1. Family. — Gentians (Gentianacese). Herbs, sel- 

 dom shrubs ; leaves mostly opposite, exstipu- 

 late, often 3-5-ribbed ; flowers regular, termi- 

 nal or axillary ; calyx and corolla persistent ; 

 aestivation plaited or imbricate-twisted ; ovary 

 of two carpels; style one, continuous; stigmas 

 1 or 2 ; placentse parietal ; fruit capsular or 

 baccate, 1 -celled, many-seeded. Distribution 

 widely extended. Yields Gentian, Chiretta, 

 Centaury, Marsh-Trefoil, &c. 



