[FAMILY 109.] TROPAEOLACEAE
Twining, succulent herbs. Leaves alternate, undivided, peltate. Flowers solitary, axillary, irregular, hermaphrodite. Sepals 5, the hindmost spurred. Petals 5, yellow or red, imbricate in bud. Stamens 8, free; anthers opening inwards or laterally. Ovary superior, 3-celled. Ovule 1 in each cell, pendulous, inverted. Style 1, with 3 stigmas. Fruit separating in 2-3 nutlets. Seeds without albumen. (Under GERANIACEAE.)
Genus 1, species 1 (T. majus L., Indian cress). Naturalized in the Island of St. Helena. Ornamental plant, also yielding salad, condiments, and medicaments. Tropaeolum L.
[FAMILY 110.] LINACEAE
Leaves undivided. Flowers regular, hermaphrodite. Calyx imbricate in bud. Petals free, with imbricate or contorted aestivation. Stamens as many or twice as many as the petals. Filaments united at the base. Ovary 2-10-celled. Ovules 1-2 in the inner angle of each cell, pendulous, inverted. Fruit a capsule or a drupe. Seeds with fleshy albumen.—Genera 7, species 60. (Plate 70.)
1. Fertile stamens as many as the petals, 4-5, furnished with glands at their base. Styles or style-branches 2-5. Petals deciduous. Fruit capsular.
Herbs or undershrubs, very rarely shrubs. [Tribe LINEAE.] 2
Fertile stamens twice as many as the petals, 10, rarely the same number,
5, but then without glands at their base and style simple. Shrubs or trees. [Tribe HUGONIEAE.] 4
2. Sepals 3-toothed at the tip. Petals very small, white. Flowers 4-merous.
Stem repeatedly forked. Leaves opposite.—Species 1. North Africa and high mountains of Central Africa. “Alseed.” Radiola Gmel.
Sepals entire. Flowers nearly always 5-merous. 3
3. Stipules bristle-like. Corolla yellow. Stamens partly (2-4 of them) with, partly without glands. Styles 3. Stigmas kidney-shaped.
Shrubs or undershrubs.—Species 1. Naturalized in the Mascarene
Islands. Ornamental plant. (Under Linum L.) Reinwardtia Dumort.
Stipules gland-like or wanting. Stamens all furnished with glands.—Species
25. North, East, and South Africa and Madagascar. L. usitatissimum L. is cultivated for fibre and oil and yields also fodder and
medicaments; other species are used as ornamental plants. “Flax.” Linum L.
4. Styles 5, free or united at the base. Stamens 10. Petals deciduous.
Fruit a drupe.—Species 25. Tropics. Some are used medicinally.
(Plate 70.) Hugonia L.
Style 1, undivided or 2-3-cleft at the top. 5
5. Style shortly 2-cleft. Ovary 2-celled, with 1 ovule in each cell. Stamens
10. Anthers linear or oblong. Petals elongated, with a glandular pit at the claw.—Species 2. East Africa. Nectaropetalum Engl.
Style 3-cleft or undivided. Ovary 3-5-celled. 6
6. Style shortly 3-cleft. Ovary 3-celled with 2 ovules in each cell. Stamens
10. Anthers ovoid or globose. Petals short. Inflorescence racemose, cone-shaped when young, with roundish vaulted bracts.—Species 1.
West Africa (Cameroons). Lepidobotrys Engl.
Style undivided. Stamens usually 5. Corolla persistent. Fruit capsular.
Inflorescence racemose with small bracts, or paniculate.—Species
5. Central Africa. (Under Ochthocosmus Benth.) Phyllocosmus Klotzsch
[FAMILY 111.] HUMIRIACEAE
Trees. Leaves alternate, undivided. Flowers in cymes or panicles, regular, hermaphrodite. Sepals 5, imbricate in bud. Petals 5, yellow or greenish, imbricate in bud, deciduous. Stamens 10, at first united below, with a prolonged connective and 1-celled anther-halves. Ovary surrounded by a cupular disc, superior, 5-celled. Ovules solitary in each cell, pendulous, inverted. Style simple. Fruit a nut or drupe. Seeds with fleshy albumen.
Genus 1, species 1. West Africa. Yields timber and edible fruits from which a spirituous drink is prepared. (Aubrya Baill., under Humiria
Aubl.) Saccoglottis Mart.
[FAMILY 112.] ERYTHROXYLACEAE