Erythryoxylon . ] 
LINACEiE. 
35 
firm, £-1 inch long, truncate or emarginate at the apex, cuneate at 
the base ; stipules linear, brown, T V“ i in. long. Flowers few, always 
solitary, on filiform ascending pedicels \ inch long. Petals inch 
long. Drupe oblong, bright red, juicy, pendulous, 1-seeded. Cav. 
Diss. t. 230. 
Mauritius, common on mountains all through the island; Pouce, Peter Botte, 
etc. Also Bourbon. Bois des Dames. Bois a balais. Bois d'huile. 
2. £2. laurifolium, Lam. ; DC. Prod. i. 573. A much-branched 
shrub, 10-15 feet high, glabrous in all its parts. Leaves short-petioled, 
alternate, oblong, 2-4 inches long, firm, shining, obtuse or acute, 
narrowed to the base ; stipules minute, lanceolate. Flowers copious, 
1-6 together from the stipulate nodes of the leafy branches, or crowded 
on short leafless shoots, on stout ascending pedicels £ inch long 
thickened upwards. Sepals inch long, becoming indurated. Petals 
4 times the length of the calyx, oblong, white, with a plicate scale on 
the face. Drupe Jinch long, oblong, obtusely trigonous, reddish, juicy. 
E. sideroxyloides and longifolium, Lam. and DC. loc. cit. 
Mauritius and Seychelles, common in woods. Also Bourbon. E. sideroxyloides is 
a hill form with 2-3-nate flowers and obovate-oblong leaves ; and E. longifoliu/m, a 
form with leaves under half an inch broad, Bois de Bonde. Bois a flambeaux. 
Xjinum usitatissimum, the common flax, is cultivated in Mauritius, and 
casually subspontaneous, and Reinwardtia trigyna (Linum trigynum, Blanch. 
Roxb. ; Bot. Mag. t. 1100), of the East Indies, is given in Dupont’s Catalogue as an 
introduced species. 
Order XVIII.* MALPIGHIACEiE. 
* Hiptage Madablota , Gsertn. ; DC. Prod. i. 583, common in Tropical 
Asia, is established in many places in woods in Mauritius. It is a 
woody climber, with large shining oblong acute entire opposite leaves, 
copious white fragrant flowers in ample axillary racemes, calyx with 5 
large adnate glands, petals round with a distinct claw and fringed edge, 
and a dry fruit of 1-3 carpels produced each into three hard dry linear- 
oblong wings 1-2 inches long. Liane de Cythere , Liane defleurs 
a' orange. 
Order XIX. Z Y G0PHYLLACE7E . 
Flowers regular, hermaphrodite. Sepals 5, free, imbricated. Petals 
5, free, hypogynous. Disk convex or depressed. Stamens 1-2 times 
the number of the petals ; filaments free ; anthers versatile, 2-celled. 
Ovary 4-5 -celled ; style simple ; stigma capitate or lobed. Fruit of 
dry separable cocci, or a capsule with septieidal dehiscence. Seeds 
usually pendulous, solitary ; embryo in ours exalbuminous. — Herbs or 
shrubs, with opposite compound leaves, persistent often spiny stipules 
and solitary or geminate axillary pedicels. Distrib. Widely spread 
in both hemispheres, mostly tropical ; species 100. 
d 2 
