Order 3. Rutaceæ. Leaves glandular with pellucid dots. The type is the same as that of the family. Flowers 4–5-merous. The ovary is most frequently 4–5-grooved. Disc well pronounced, often appearing as a “gynophore.” The majority are shrubs with alternate or opposite, compound, more rarely simple, leaves.
A. The ovary is deeply 2–5-cleft with basal styles which are more or less united; the carpels in some genera are entirely free (groups 1, 2). The fruit is capsular and most frequently dehisces like follicles along the ventral suture or septicidally, so that a horn-like internal layer (endocarp) separates elastically from the external layer.
1. Zanthoxyleæ. Zanthoxylum; Choisya; Evodia.
2. Boronieæ. Australia.—Correa.
3. Diosmeæ. Heather-like shrubs; Africa.—Diosma, Coleonema, Empleurum and Barosma. Officinal: Barosma crenulata and betulina, “broad Buchu leaves” (B. serratifolia and Empleurum serrulatum, “narrow Buchu-leaves”).
Fig. 465.—Ruta. Flower (mag.).
Fig. 466.—Ruta. Longitudinal section of flower.
