188 
Order CXXXVIII. BALSAMACE^. 
Balsamiflu^, Blume FI. Javce. 
Essential Character. — Catkins unisexual, roundish. Males : Anthers numerous, 
oblong, nearly sessile ; with no calyx, but mixed with a few minute scales and covering the 
common receptacle. Femai.es : Ovaries 2-celled, collected into a globe, each surrounded by 
a few scales ; styles 2, long. Fruit a kind of cone composed of indurated connected scales, 
in the cavities of which lie obconical, 2~lobed, 2-celled capsules. Seeds numerous, or soli- 
tary by abortion, compressed, membranous, winged, attached internally to the middle of 
the dissepiments in a peltate manner. Embryo inverted, in the midst of albumen. — Tall 
trees, yielding balsam. Leaves alternate, simple or lobed, with glandular serratures at the 
edges. Stipules deciduous. Female catkins on longer stalks than the males, and below 
them. Blume. 
Affinities. Especially known from all the neighbouring' orders by their 
2-lohed, 2-celled polyspermous capsules, and their albuminous embryo. They 
are nearest Betulacese in the structure of their fruit. Their balsamic products 
have no parallel among similar plants, except in a slight degree in Salicacese. 
Geography. The tropics of India, and the warmer parts of North 
America and the Levant, are the countries of this order. 
Properties. The fragrant resin Storax is yielded by several species of 
Liquidambar. 
GENERA. 
Liquidambar, L. 
Altingia, Nor. 
Alliance III. MONIMIALES. 
Essential Character. — Flowers placed within an involucre. Sexes distinct. Aromatic 
trees or shrubs. 
In this alliance we have the same form among Incomplete plants as 
Euphorbia exhibits in Polypetalous ones, namely, an involucre assuming the 
appearance of a calyx and enclosing in its cavity a number of simple, perfectly 
naked, monandrous or monogynous flowers. Further than this, there seems 
no relation with Monimiales and Euphorbia ; the former are much more closely 
akin to Urticacese, with which they accord in the nature of their carpels, and 
in the general character of the receptacle-like involucre of such plants as Am- 
bora, &c. Their naked flowers and aromatic opposite leaves are sufficient to 
distinguish them. Bartling assigns the alliance pellucid dots in the leaves ; 
but although they exist in Ruizia they are by no means universal. 
Oruer CXXXIX. MONIMIACE^. 
Monimie.-e, Juss. in Ann. Mus. 14. 130. (1809) ; DC. Ess. Med. 265. (1816) ; Bartl. Ord. 
Nat. 103. (1830) ; Arnott in Edinb. Encycl. 129. (1832). 
Essential Character. — Flowers unisexual. Involucre tubular, toothed or lobed at the 
apex, with valvular aestivation. indefinite, covering all the inside of the involucre ; 
anthers 2-celled, bursting longitudinally. Ovaries several, superior, 1 -celled, distinct, en- 
closed within the tube of the involucre, each with its own style and stigma ; ovule pendu- 
lous. Fruit consisting of several 1 -seeded nuts, enclosed within the enlarged involucre. 
Seed pendulous ; embryo in the midst of an abundant albumen ; radicle superior. — Aroma- 
