HI 
Alliance III. CORIALES. 
Essential Character. — Styles and stigmas perfectly distinct, with a somewhat lateral 
origin : Carpels quite distinct. 
These may be regarded as Rutales with the separation of the carpels, which 
in that alliance is only imperfectly effected, completed, 
Order CVI. CORIARIACE,^. 
CoRiARiEiE, DC. Prodr. 1. 739. (1824.) 
Essential Character. — Flowers either hermaphrodite, or monoecious, or dioecious. 
Calyx campanulate, .5-parted, ovate. Petals .5, alternate with the lobes of the calyx, and 
smaller than they are, fleshy, with an elevated keel in the inside. Stamens 10, arising 
from the torus, 5 between the lobes of the calyx and the angles of the ovary, 5 between the 
petals and the furrows erf the ovary ; filaments filiform ; anthers oblong, 2-celled. Orary 
seated on a thickish gynobase, 5-celled, 5-angled ; style 0 ; stigmas 5, long, subulate ; ovules 
solitary, pendulous, or ascending. Carpels 5, when ripe close together but separate, inde- 
hiscent, 1 -seeded, sometimes surrounded with glandular lobes. Seed pendulous or ascend- 
ing ; albumen none ; embryo straight ; cotyledons 2, fleshy. — Shrubs, with opposite branches, 
often 3 on each side, 2 of them being secondary to an intermediate principal one. Leaves 
opposite or alternate, simple, entire. Buds scaly. Racemes terminal, and axillary. 
Affinities. Placed by De Candolle immediately after Ochnacese, with 
which the order no doubt agrees in having its ovaries distinct, and suiTound- 
ing a fleshy axis ; but the stigmas in Coriariacese are long, linear, and distinct, 
with no style, while Ochnacese have a single style connecting the carpels and 
minute stigmas ; the former, therefore, are apocarpous, the latter syncarpous. 
Coriariaceae are also certainly allied to Rutaceae, but they differ from them as 
they do from Ochnaceae ; and besides, the carpels are in Rutaceae connate. 
With Connaraceae they agree in several points, while they are different in 
others. Upon the whole, their exact affinity may be considered unsettled. If 
Ercilla belongs here, the position of the leaves and the ovules will be of no im- 
portance, for in both those respects the t\\^o genera differ. 
De Candolle understands Coriaria as apetalous, but I do not see upon what 
principle, either of structure or analogy. In his Essai sur les Proprietes 
Medicales he referred it to the vicinity of Rhamnaceae, p. 350. Jussieu referred 
it to Malpighiaceae. 
Geography. Chile and Peru, the south of Europe, north of Africa, New 
Zealand, and Mexico. 
Properties. Coriaria myrtifolia is used by dyers for staining black. Its 
fruit is poisonous. It is said that several soldiers of the French army in 
Catalonia were affected by eating it; 15 became stupified, and 3 died. DC. 
Its leaves have been used to adulterate Senna, and have produced fatal con- 
sequences. Fee. The fruit of Coriaria napalensis is frequently eaten in the 
north of India without inconvenience. Royle. 
GENERA. 
Coriaria, L. 
Ercilla, Ad. de J. 
Bridgesia, Hooker. 
