Trees with a milky juice. Leaves alternate, usually crowded at the top of the stem, palmately lobed or divided, without stipules. Flowers, at least the male ones, panicled, 5-merous, unisexual or polygamous. Petals united below, with contorted aestivation. Stamens 10, inserted in the tube of the corolla. Anthers turned inwards, with a prolonged connective. Ovary superior, 1-or 5-celled. Ovules numerous, parietal, inverted. Style simple with 5 stigmas, or 5-to many-cleft. Fruit a berry. Seeds albuminous, with a double coat, succulent outside, woody within.—Genera 2, species 3. Tropics. (PAPAYACEAE, under PASSIFLORACEAE.)
Filaments free. Ovary 1-celled. Stigmas branched. Stem unarmed, simple or scantily branched.—Species 1 (C. Papaya L., papaw-tree).
Cultivated and sometimes naturalized in the tropics. It yields edible fruits, medicaments, and substitutes for soap and tobacco. The juice of the stem is poisonous, that of the leaves is used for rendering meat tender. (Papaya Tourn.) Carica L.
Filaments united below. Ovary 5-celled. Stigmas undivided. Stem branched, prickly. Species 2. Central Africa. (Under Jacaratia
Marcgr.) Cylicomorpha Urban
SUBORDER LOASINEAE
[FAMILY 164.] LOASACEAE
Shrubs. Leaves alternate, toothed or lobed, without stipules. Flowers in cymes, regular, 5-merous, hermaphrodite. Sepals open in bud, becoming wing-like after flowering. Petals shorter, free, concave, with imbricate or contorted aestivation. Stamens numerous, collected in 5 bundles opposite to the petals, alternating with glandular scales bearing each two staminodes on their inner surface. Ovary inferior, unequally 2-celled, the larger cell with two ovules, the smaller with one. Ovules descending, inverted. Style simple or 3-cleft. Fruit dry, indehiscent. Seeds exalbuminous; embryo straight.
Genus 1, species 1. South Africa. Kissenia R. Br.
SUBORDER BEGONIINEAE
[FAMILY 165.] BEGONIACEAE
Leaves alternate, simple or palmately compound, usually oblique, stipulate. Flowers in cymes, monoecious. Perianth simple, of 2-5, very rarely 6-9 free segments. Stamens numerous. Anthers basifixed. Ovary inferior, completely or almost completely 2-6-celled, usually winged. Placentas attached to the inner angle of the cells or to the partitions. Ovules numerous, inverted. Styles 2-6, free or united at the base, usually cleft. Fruit a capsule, rarely a berry. Seeds very numerous, minute, with a striate or netted testa, exalbuminous. (Plate 107.)
Genus 1, species 110. Tropical and South Africa. Some species are used as ornamental or medicinal plants or as vegetables. (Including Mezierea
Gaud.) Begonia L.