Phytolaccece.] 
THE COLONY OE VICTORIA. 
197 
X. —CARYOPHYLLLNYE. 
I 
Calyx in prseflorescence imbricate. Corolla contorted in bud, sometimes wanting. 
Stamens usually definite and free. Placentae central. Embryo cylindrical, periphe- 
rical, more or less surrounding the amylaceous albumen. 
Order PHYTOLACCE A). 
It. Sr. in Append, to Tuckey’s Congo Expedition, p. 35. 
Plowers uni- or bisexual, usually symmetrical. Calyx divided into 4 or 5 sepals 
or lobes, or shortly 4-8-toothed, persistent; the sepals or lobes imbricate in bud. 
Petals generally wanting, when developed free and unguiculate. Stamens as many 
as divisions of the calyx and alternate with them or more numerous , free or at the base 
united. Anthers two-celled, bursting longitudinally with introrse dehiscence. Sta- 
minodia wanting. Ovary free, simple or compound, usually with a single ovule in 
each cell or carpel. Styles continuous to the inner angle of the cartels, usually 
introrse-stigmatose. Print consisting of one or more free or connate or around a 
central column adnate indehiscent or bivalved carpels. Pericarp membranous, char- 
taceous, nucamentaceous or baccate. Seeds erect, solitary. Testa membranous or 
crustaceous. Albumen usually farinaceous, central or unilateral, seldom peripherical 
or fleshy or wanting. Embryo annular or arcuate, peripherical, seldom straight. 
Cotyledons foliaceous and convolute or flat, or semiterete. Itadiclc inferior. 
Herbaceous, less frequently shrubby, rarely arborescent plants, rather numerous 
in the warmer parts of America and in South Africa, much fewer in other parts of the 
globe, none penetrating to colder latitudes. Leaves alternate, very seldom almost 
opposite, never vaginate, always simple, entire or minutely denticulated, sometimes 
pelluciclly dotted, with or without stipules. Elowers prevailingly racemose, spicate 
or glomerate, usually three-bracteolate, not showy. Calyx sometimes petaloid.— 
Endl. Gen. 975 ; Lindl. Peg. Kingd. edit. iii. p. 508 ; Moquin-Tandon, in Cand. Prodr. 
xiii. i. 2; Payer, Traite d'Organog. comparee, 301, pi. 63. 
Had not the general divisions of Candolle’s system been adhered to in this work, 
it would have been desirable to consoeiate to this order Portulaceae, Salsolacese and 
Amaranthacese, with all of W'liich the Phytolaccese are brought in close contact by 
manifold characters and especially by the peripheral embryo and amylaceous albumen. 
The Australian genera hitherto divulged are Gyrostemon, Codonocarpus, Cyclotheca, 
Didymotheca, Tersonia, Monococcos and perhaps Stylobasium. These with exception 
