126 
PORTULACEJE. 
[. Bortulaca . 
of flowers terminal on the branches, involucred by several ordinary 
leaves and minute densely pilose bracts. Petals 5, purple. Stamens 
about 20. Bot. Beg. t. 792. 
Mauritius, in cultivated ground ; now spread in the tropics of the Old World, but 
probably native only in America. Petit Pourpier matron. 
Order XLIX. ARALIACE.®. 
Flowers regular, hermaphrodite or often polygamous in the Mauritian 
species. Calyx-tube adnate to the short ovary ; limb narrow, cupular, 
persistent, subentire. Petals numerous, epigynous, valvate, cohering 
long in a hemispherical cap ; filaments short, inflexed ; anthers oblong, 
didymous, dorsifixed. Ovary many-celled ; placentation axile ; ovules 
solitary in each cell, pendulous ; styles as many as the cells, free or con- 
nate at the base in a cone. Fruit baccate, with the bony endocarp 
investing the seeds ; albumen copious, often ruminate. — Shrubs, with # 
simple or pinnate or palmate shining coriaceous stipulate leaves, and 
small copious greenish often umbellate flowers. Distrib. Cosmopo- 
litan. Species 350. 
1. POLYSCIAS, Forst. 
Flowers regular, hermaphrodite. Calyx-tube adnate to the ovary, 
campanulate ; limb narrow, coriaceous, collar-like. Petals 6-16, cohe- 
ring in a hemispherical cap, finally spreading. Stamens as many as the 
petals, included. Ovary inferior, 6-12-celled ; styles the same number, 
short, distinct, falcate. Fruit baccate, subglobose, with a triquetrous 
pyrene in each cell ; albumen horny, not ruminate. — Erect glabrous 
shrubs, with shining coriaceous pinnate leaves and varied inflores- 
cence. Distrib. Species about a dozen, the rest tropical Asian and 
Polynesian, none African. 
Flowern in dense simple subspicate racemes . . . . 1. P. paniculata. 
Flowers in panicles with spicate branches 2. P. dich roost achya. 
Flowers in panicles with racemose branches, the end 
ones umbelled. 
Petals and stamens about 14 3. P. cupularis. 
Petals and stamens 6-8 4. P. Ayresii. 
Flowers in panicles with branches most or all um- 
belled. 
Styles and cells of ovary 10-12 5. P. cutispongia. 
Styles and cells of ovary 6-8. 
Branches of panicle short, simple 6. P. repanda. 
Branches of panicle elongated, compound . . . 7. P. sechellarum. 
1. P. paniculata, Baker. An erect glabrous shrub, with stout terete 
branchlets. Leaves long-petioled ; blade 6-9 in. long; leaflets usually 
7, short-stalked, oblong, obtuse, shining, subcoriaceous, deltoid or 
rather rounded at base, 4-6 in. long. Flowers in dense subspicate 
peduncled racemes 2-4 in. long, with a rosette of lanceolate bracts 
at the base before expansion ; pedicels very short and thick, not arti- 
