ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY.
145
EXPLANATION OF PLATE 148-b. partly.
A. Sideroxylon Attenuatum.
1. Flower bud.
2. Flower split open, showing the fertile and sterile stamens. 3. Anthers.
4. Calyx divided, showing the free ovary.
5. Ovary detached. 6. cut vertically, ovules ascending. 7. Cut transversely, 5-celled.
B. Isonandra Candolliana.
1. A detached flower.
2. Corolla detached and split open, showing all the stamens fertile and anthers extrorse.
3. Detached anthers.
4. Ovary detached.
5. and 5. Two ovaries cut transversely, one 4- the other 5-celled.
6. Cut vertically. C. Mimusops Roxburghiana.
1. Expanded flower.
2. Detached corolla split open.
3. A portion of the corolla more magnified, showing all the parts mentioned in the diagram.
4. Detached stamens.
5. Calyx and ovary.
6. Ovary cut vertically.
7. Cut transversely.
8. A fruit cut vertically.
9. cut transversely, 5 of its 8 ovules abortive.
10. Detached seed.
11. cut longitudinally, embryo in situ.
12. Detached embryo.
XCIX.— EBENACEAE.
This small order, consisting of only 8 genera, but nearly 160 species, was first indicated by Jussieu under the name of Guaicance, to which he referred 10 genera, all except two of which have since been removed ; one to Sapotacece, and seven to Styracacece. Ventenat and Brown subsequently revised the order, the former changing the name to that which it now bears. It for the most part consists of trees, the timber of which is remarkable for its hardness and durability, the well-known Ebony and Lignum Vitae being two of them.
Character of the Order. Flowers, by abortion, usually unisexual rarely bisexual, the male with a rudimentary ovary, the female with sterile stamens. Calyx 3-7-lobed, nearly equal, persistent. Corolla monopetalous, somewhat coriaceous, usually pubescent externally and glabrous within ; limb 8-7-lobed, imbricated in aestivation. Stamens definite, either arising from the corolla, or hypogynous, twice as many as the segments of the corolla, sometimes four times as many, or the same number and then alternate with them, often inserted in pairs near the bottom of the tube and those neither opposite nor alternate ; filaments simple in the hermaphrodite species, generally doubled in the polygamous and disecious ones, both their divisions bearing anthers but the inner generally smaller ; anthers attached by their base, generally lanceolate, 2-celled, dehiscing lengthwise, sometimes bearded ; pollen round, smooth. Ovary sessile without any disk, several-celled, the cells each having one or two ovules, pendulous from the apex ; style divided, seldom simple ; stigmas bifid or simple. Fruit fleshy, round, or oval, by abortion often few-seeded, its pericarp often opening in a regular manner. Seed with a membranaceous testa, of the same figure as the albumen, which is cartilaginous and white ; embryo in the axis, or but little out of it, straight, white, generally more than half as long as the albumen ; cotyledons foliaceous, generally somewhat veiny, lying close together, or occasionally slightly separate ; radicle taper, of middling length or long, superior, turned towards the hilum. — Trees, shrubs, or undershrubs, without milk, with hard heavy wood, frequent in warm, rare in colder regions. Leaves alternate or sub-opposite, entire, exstipulate, short petioled. Cymes axillary, rarely terminal, in the males few or many-flowered, one flower evidently terminal ; in the female one-flowered by the lateral flowers aborting ; pedicels articulated at the apex ; females usually larger, with the calyx growing with the fruit.
Affinities. Jussieu viewed the genus Diospyros as being most nearly allied to Sapota, but included it in an order the bulk of which was composed of genera now removed to constitute the present Styracacece, which are perigynous or have an inferior ovary, hence, misled by that association, he placed Diospyros, having hypogynous flowers, in his perigynous class, from which it is sufficiently distinct. Brown considers this order most
