MANUAL OF NATURAL HISTORY. 461 



5. Family. — Souari-nuts (Caryocaracese). Large 



trees ; leaves opposite, exstipulate, digitate ; 

 flowers large, racemose ; sepals 5-6, more or 

 less combined ; petals 5-8 ; aestivation imbri- 

 cate ; stamens slightly monadelphous ; an- 

 thers roundish ; ovary 4-5-celled ; ovules 

 semi-anatropal ; stigmas sessile ; fruit of se- 

 veral indehiscent, 1- celled, 1 -seeded nuts, 

 with a thick double endocarp ; embryo with 

 a very large radicle. Inhabit warm South 

 American forests. Souari-nuts are produced 

 by Caryocar butyrosum. 



6. Family. — Tea-plants (Ternstromiacese). Trees or 



shrubs ; leaves alternate, exstipulate, occa- 

 sionally dotted ; peduncles axillary or termi- 

 nal ; flowers usually white ; sepals 5-7, deci- 

 duous ; petals 5-6-9, often combined at the 

 base ; anthers versatile or adnate ; ovary 

 multilocular ; styles 2-7, more or less com- 

 bined ; fruit capsular, 2-7-eelled, opening by 

 valves, or coriaceous and indehiscent ; seeds 

 few, large. Abundant in North and South 

 America, India, and China. The principal 

 plant is that affording Tea, now in this coun- 

 try, become quite a necessary of life. It is 

 not quite settled whether the varieties of tea, 

 namely, the green and the black, are the 

 products of one or of different species. (The- 

 acece, Mirbel.) 



7. Family. — Scrubby-Oaks (Lophiracese). Trees; 



bark dry ; leaves alternate ; stipules very 



