wers, y in erm Theo ure all natives of the forests of equininoctial —A. OXXXIV, Vochy tole habitat’ hole the banks e streams, sometimes read: |: mountains to 2a considerable height, pela mine by their lange pespre ing heads,asdescribed by Schomburgh.

Exogenous shrubs, with partially complete symmetrical flowers terminal stalked racemes Bh pierohBeare rig ascending ¢ovules, prin CXXXY. ylea-stigmas, — leaves pa geStipules. The few known "age- * grime 2!an 0 nuts are svattered over the globe. Of the wing 9 een e in North America, one in Japan,t lie one‘in

Exogenous trees of conside) twining shrubs bearing ten- # drils;sometimes climbing pants,with Legion unsymmetrical flowers CXXXVI. Sapindace®. in racemes, or racemous paniclesBigad; wis, with an appendage, anthers opening longitudinally; three d usually axillate and ae

The Maples are exogenons trees, with complete unsymmetrical, often polygamous flowers, in axillary racemes or corymbs;’ ’ 2; petals naked equtl to the lobes of the calyx; anthers o eal longi ain “, CXXXVIIT. Aceracere. carpels, and seeds without an axil. ate be ee ' ‘Exogenous trees and shrubs, often havi imbi i } rubs, aving a climbing habit, with com- —t| | me | a = imbricated calvx; naked, stalked wis; ovules hanging by cords; simple stigma; and convolute embry Many of the trees of this order are beautiful trees or climbers, with gaudy flowers, some of them yielding fruits, others with valuable medicinal properties. They are all tropical.

CXXXIX. Malpighiaceæ.

— Gus or trees, with complete, partially symmetrical —. = lowers, growing from among small imbricated scales: an an ¢ 7) petals with an appendage; sessile pendulous ovules; ss apitate stigmas; and straight embryo. They are principally natives of GREL., Reaqaamayg lap. the West Indie; — ge; ‘ and one of r= or South America, chiefly Brazil,a few East Indian, In skimming over the surface of the vegetable world, as our limited space compels us

| to do, we necessarily

}) ‘;; leave unnoticed a vast hi\y number of genera inte-x resting alike for their properties, for their beauties, and for the physiological peculiarities they present. Among the sapinaceous plants, for instance, we find genera so anomalous that botanists can only link them together in the LT system by the discovery that the three “OSE Ni pieces which constitute their calyx are m reality five, two petal-like bodies lving within the sepals being part of the calyx. They are natives, for the most part, of the tropics, especially of South America, India, and Africa. While many species yield most delicious fruits, others are deadly poisons, even where the fruit is safe and delicious— Sapindus Senegalensis, for instance: the seeds are known to be poisonous to man and nw beast. ‘Amid structures so diversified their ee Sramicle of the properties are equally so. The greater part are bitter, and the roots milky; even the roots of the Sycamore (Acer pseudo-platunas) baving an abundant cc2 i ( ‘

fluid in the month of June. The celebrated Snake-root (Polugala Senega) is acid and acrid, and acts as a sudorific, and many. of them are valuable as febrifuges. Among the Sapindas many of the leaves are poisonous, while the fruits are wholesome and delicious. Different species of Nephelium produce fruits of great delicacy in the Indian Archipelago. The roots of the American Horse Chestnut (2sculus hippocastanum), which belongs to this order, are poisonous; and the seeds of the common Horse Chestnut, although they are said to be excellent feed for sheep, are not free from suspicion. GUTTIFERALES. Hypogynous exogens with monodichlamydeous flowers; placent axile, imbricated calyx, and imbricated or twisted corolla, embryo little or no albumen. The flowers throughout the orders forming the group are symmetrical in their calyx, corolla, and

stamens; they are also remarkable for their resinous secretions.

Gigantic exogenons trees, with simple alternate leaves, large convo- | luteAon unaed-symmetrical flowers, usually large, inracemes, terminal and pani i ged. : are trees of India and the satieesardsipelago, of majestic vies and } CXLI, Dipterace®. —e bag with beautif tered flowers fey“tichly-col ured wingedfruit, bearing some resemblancetone Magnolia in their peculiar rolled-upstiles,and to the oak in foliage, All the species yield

long style. “the — r part of the order are beautiful trees or shrubs 0 coeod ence n forests agina few natives of China, India, Africa,

iia‘ us ia arge size, with opposite palmate leaves, large symmetrical aowien: arranged in racemes, equilateral petals, — stigmas. solitary seeds and mbryo, with enormous radicle. The order _consists of a tew large trees of the South American forests in the hottest ane.s. er yield a delicious nut, and an oil not inferior to thatof

aphronail trees and shrubs, with simple opposite leaves, withoutst pules;numerous symmetricalaxillary fgo equilateral petals;nate €ss anthers; solitary,or beakl seeds, and sessile stigmas, All arePg y vhadof the oment ‘aostly South American, a few of Madagascar and Africa, growing amidst excessive heat and humidi Exogenous trees or shrubs, sometimes climbing and rooting,wi simple alternate entire leaves, without stipules;unsymmetrical syetsioasct= umbels, racemes, or terminal spikes: equilateral petals; versat thi i; and innumerable minute seeds. Native of ie equinoctial regionsofAmerica, with one species belongingto New C:— donia. They are handsomme and curious plants, ergot for the’ gtingie corollate bracts, adhering by their rooting fibres to the trunks0of they are not, however, strictly spe ae Hertes eous exogens, sometimes annual plants, shrubs,0 oblique glandular petals, numerous naked seeds, and wn, tedistinotes having a resinous juice; flowers mostly yellow and regular, with v forms of inflorescence. They are widely Sustain i prea og mountains and valleeys, “marshesPay dry aia 8, meadowsand heath, in Austral: Small exogenous tenis with akg cites leaves, alternate, without stipules, and overspreadby resinous sunken glands; suet &ged ‘petals, a tew anaes seeds, and long distinct styles, They are of the shores of the Mediterraneanand the salt plains of Northern Asia.

The Clusiaces and Guttifers are distinguished for their succulent juicy fruit, in many cases large apples, the Mangosteen (Garcinia Mangostana) being the most delicious. They are all plants of the tropics, which Dr. Wight describes as trees of majestic size and handsome form, and deserving of cultivation for the beauty of their clustered flowers, and the richly coloured wings of their curious fruit. The Crustacem are chiefly natives of tropical America, a few of Madagascar and Africa, and similar regions where

great heat and moisture are combined. Gamboge is the secretion, as is supposed, of Garcinia cochinchinensis; and most of them yield balsams and other officinal products.

NYMPHALES.

Hypogynous exogens with dichlamydeous flowers, placentae axile or sutural, embryo on the outside of a large mass of mealy albumen, but sometimes without. 8 genera, 56 species.

Exogenous herbs, with peltate or cordate Pevsoan 4 anc rising from 4 prostratetrunk, =agg _ being vaters; flowers large, showy, sometimes sweet-scent d fruit, "and dissepimental placeenta. CXLVIII. Nymphecee. The Water Lilies are floating peg inhabit the northern hemisphere, Sometimes in Sou nh Africa. On the ouat of Arateine, they are repre- Sented by the Victoria Regia, | Exogenous sai plants, with floating peltate leaves, axillary flowers, solitary, yellow, or purple; sepals three or four, coloured inside petals; three or four alternate, — es age orge or indefinite; anthers CXLIX, Cabombacee. continuous with the fila carpels distinct; abundant albumen; no Visible torus, Water-ahaiterg? America, nerom Cayenne to New Jersey.'y, and Australia beyond the tropics. Exogenous herbs, with peltate floating leaves, rising from aprostrate \

sbutiens Abenae ie: bp CL. Nelumbiacéz.

includingthe Lotus and Egyptian

The Nympwaxes are floating plants, with peltate or fleshy cordate leaeaves, arising from the prostrate trunks growing in quiet waters. Their flowers are large, showy, and of bright white, yellow, or blue colours. -They inhabit the whole of the northern hemisphere; occasionally they are met with on the South African coast, but — generally they are rare in the southern hemisphere. In the South American continent they are represented by the Victoria Lily. Among the Euryalides, so named after one of the Gorgons, they have the tube of the calyx adherent. to the disc. E. ferow is an elegant aquatic, covered with prickles, with peltate orbicular — and bluish purple or violet flowers. This species emulates

Victoria regia in the size of its leaves, with an insignificant flower. The Victoria regia, as we have seen in an earlier chapter, produces leaves six feet and a half in diameter, and flowers fifteen inches across. These inhabit the cool translucent lake-like rivers of Demerara, as illustrated in Plate V. The NupHArDE# have calyx and petals both distinct. The species are about twenty. The Blue Water Lily (JV. caerulea), the sacred plant of the ancient Egyptian, is very fragrant. N. edulis contains abundance of starch in its root, and is an article of diet in India. XN. lotus, the Egyptian Lotus, grows in slow running streams, and in the rice-fields, in Egypt. It has large white flowers,

with sepals, red at the margins; the seeds and roots were dried and made into bread by the ancient Egyptians. In WW. alba, the common White Water Lily of our ponds and ditches, the flowers, according to Linnzus, open in the morning about seven o’clock and close again on the approach of evening. The leaves of Water Lilies are large, succulent, and floating, the sepals and petals numerous, imbricated, and passing gradually into each other, with persistent sepals. The leaf is a rounded ovate, usually purplish beneath, the lobes at the base almost parallel, and the leaf stalk cylindrical. In Nupfars, on the contrary, they are ovate, pointed, the basal leaves slightly divergent, and the leaf stalk angular, especially on the upper part.

The Netumpiace®, or Water-beans, are natives of stagnant _ waters in the temperate and tropical regions of both hemispheres; chiefly remarkable for the beauty of their flowers. The fruit of Nelumbrum: speciosum is supposed to have been the Egyptian Bean of Pythagoras, and the flower that mythic lotus so common _ the monuments of Egypt and India.

RANUNCULACE®. Hypogynous exogens, flowers monodichlamydeous, placente sutural or axile, embryo minute, enclosed in copious fleshy oF horny albumen. 119 genera, 1,703 species.

ine exogenous trees or shrubs, flowers solitary, — odoriferous.|

xogenous trees and shrubs, with distinct carpels, no stipules, a valvate cornie and ruminate albumen; leaves alternate, wegen entire, without stipules;F grub inns green or brTOWN, iaxillaryand solitary. The tropics ar Saaeee. of the old world a Exogenous trees, pores eeor undershrubs, rarely herbaceous plants, ena ping 7 digas or panicles, often yellow; stamens hypo-gynow ing paper carpels distinct, no stipules, eyhigs CLULI. Dilleniacer. corolla,homoyeneous albumen, and arillateseeds. The habitat of th order is Pace v a, India, and equinoctial Aaeties, and in pence ca afew s) with.

yx an rT spurs while sepals pen rtp e blendedttage r in Caltha and Anemone, CLIV. Ranunculaces. d the spurred and renter ae — assimilated inhe myoarctic Species, Ranunculus acaulis. the order iis found in Europe, one-seventh in North America, one-twenty-fifth inin India, one-seventeenth in a Aenea,An anda few species are found, according to De Candolle, in Aust Exogenous herbaceous perennials, with fibrous roots, inhabiting bogs, oars radicle, a hollow ines. sgpetiole,: sort of pitcher with 2 lated laminae, fitting like eas eg nsolidated, with perman CLV. Sarraceniacee. calyx and axile pla oe ‘The.sin ar flower, gy the dae sedtie flower, from its tabular lea e bogs of North America, while analogous sported inhabit the woods of Guayana.

Herbaceons, with some shrubby exogens, often with a milky juice, with one, two, or, three parted flower, consolidated carpels, sri is. fall cde edtheehata aBurgesheyrangeBow boss Dopo CLVI. Papaveracee. inceu in theversotwe Sop ee “ovary.with many disti while the ovules are distributedover the whole surface of the dissepiments, as in the Water Lilies,Li

Lanals—so called from rana, a frog, from many of the species inhabiting humid places usually the haunt of that animal—are characterised by the presence of a distinct calyx and corolla, sometimes so blended together, however, as to be indistinguishable; while in other instances there is no corolla, and occasionally both are absent. In general there is an indefinite number of stamens but there are exceptions to that rule, asin the Bocagea, among the Anonacem, in which the stamens and carpels are definite.

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