Berberis is a shrub; it has sepals 3 + 3, petals 3 + 3, stamens 3 + 3 (Fig. [384]). The petals (honey-leaves) bear internally at the base 2 darkish-yellow nectaries. The filaments are sensitive at the base, and suddenly bend inwards if touched at that spot (Fig. [385]). The racemes often have a terminal, 5-merous flower; they are borne on dwarf-branches. The leaves on the long-branches develope into thorns, but the buds in their axils, in the same year as themselves, develope as the short-branches with simple foliage-leaves, articulated at the base, from which fact some authorities have considered that the leaf is compound with a single, terminal leaflet.—Mahonia has imparipinnate leaves. The flower has 3 whorls of sepals. Otherwise as in Berberis.—Epimedium; herbs with spurred petals; the flowers dimerous; 4–5 whorls of sepals, 2 of petals and stamens. Fruit a capsule. Leontice, fruit dry. The anthers of Podophyllum dehisce longitudinally.—Nandina. Aceranthus.
100 species; North temp., especially Asia: fossils in Tertiary. Berberis vulgaris is a native of Europe. This and other species, together with Mahonia aquifolium (N. Am.), Epimedium alpinum, etc., are cultivated as ornamental plants. Several have a yellow colouring matter in the root and stem. Officinal: the rhizome of Podophyllum peltatum (from N. Am.) yields podophyllin.
Order 9. Menispermaceæ. This order has derived its name from the more or less crescent-like fruits and seeds. Diœcious. The flowers are 2–3-merous, most frequently as in Berberis (S3 + 3, P3 + 3, A3 + 3), with the difference that there are 3 free carpels, each with 1 ovule; in some genera, however, the number is different. Stamens often united into a bundle (as in Myristica); anthers dehiscing longitudinally; fruit a drupe.—The plants (with herbaceous or woody stems) belonging to this order are nearly all twining or climbing plants, and have scattered, palmate or peltate, sometimes lobed leaves without stipules. Structure of stem anomalous. Cocculus, Menispermum, Cissampelos, Anamirta.
150 species; Tropical; very rich in bitter and poisonous properties. Officinal: Calumba-root from Jateorhiza columba (E. Africa). The following are cultivated as ornamental plants:—Menispermum canadense (N. Am.) and M. dahuricum (Asia). The fruits of Anamirta cocculus (E. Ind.) are very poisonous (“Grains-of-Paradise”; the poisonous matter is picrotoxine).
Order 10. Lardizabalaceæ. This order, by the free, apocarpous carpels, belongs to a more primitive type, and by the united stamens to a more developed one. Akebia; Holbœllia; principally climbing or twining shrubs. About 7 species in S.E. Asia and S. Am.
Order 11. Lauraceæ (True Laurels). Trees or shrubs; the leaves, always without stipules, are simple, most frequently scattered, lanceolate or elliptical, entire, penninerved, finely reticulate (except Cinnamomum with 3–5-veined leaf), leathery and evergreen (except, e.g. Cinnamomum); they are frequently studded with clear glands containing volatile oil. The flowers are borne in panicles and are small and of a greenish or whitish colour. They are regular, perigynous, with most frequently a bowl or cup-shaped receptacle (Fig. [386]), usually ☿, and trimerous (rarely dimerous) through all (most frequently 6–7) whorls; viz. most frequently, perianth 2 whorls, stamens 3–4 and carpels 1 (P3 + 3, A3 + 3 + 3 + 3, G3) in regular alternation (Fig. [387]). Each of the 2 or 4 loculi of the anthers open by an upwardly directed valve (Fig. [386]); of the stamens, the 2 outermost whorls are generally introrse, the others extrorse, or 1–3 whorls are developed as staminodes (Fig. [387] g). The gynœceum has 1 loculus with 1 style and 1 pendulous ovule (Fig. [386]), and may be considered as formed of 3 carpels. The fruit is a berry (Fig. [388]) or drupe, which often is surrounded at its base by the persistent receptacle (as an acorn by its cupule), which becomes fleshy and sometimes coloured during the ripening of the fruit. The embryo has 2 thick cotyledons, but no endosperm (Fig. [388]).
Fig. 386.—Flower of the Cinnamon-tree (Cinnamomum zeylanicum) (longitudinal section).
Fig. 387.—Typical diagram of the Lauraceæ: g staminodes.