SUBORDER ANCISTROCLADINEAE

[FAMILY 166.] ANCISTROCLADACEAE

Climbing, tendril-bearing shrubs. Leaves alternate, undivided, with small, deciduous stipules. Flowers in racemes or panicles, regular, hermaphrodite. Sepals unequal, imbricate in bud. Petals 5, united at the base, with contorted aestivation. Stamens 10, rarely 9. Filaments united at the base, short. Anthers basifixed, opening inwards by longitudinal slits. Ovary inferior, 1-celled. Ovule 1, basal, half-inverted. Style simple with 3 stigmas or 3-cleft. Fruit a nut surmounted by the enlarged, wing-like sepals. Seeds with a thin testa, a repeatedly folded albumen, and a straight embryo. (Under DIPTEROCARPACEAE.)

Genus 1, species 2. West Africa. Ancistrocladus Wall.

ORDER OPUNTIALES

[FAMILY 167.] CACTACEAE

Succulent plants with a thickened, usually jointed and spiny stem. Leaves mostly scale-like, often deciduous. Flowers solitary or in clusters, hermaphrodite. Perianth of 8 or more segments not distinctly differentiated into sepals and petals. Stamens numerous. Anthers opening inwards or laterally. Ovary inferior, 1-celled, with several parietal placentas. Ovules inverted. Style simple, with several stigmas. Fruit a berry. Seeds albuminous; embryo curved.—Genera 5, species 13.

1. Leaves well-developed. Stem not jointed. Spines not barbed. Perianth wheel-shaped. Ovules few, not enveloped by the short funicle. Cotyledons intertwisted.—Species 1. Naturalized in the Mascarene Islands.
A decorative and medicinal plant. [Subfamily PEIRESKIOIDEAE, tribe PEIRESKIEAE.] Peireskia Plum.
Leaves scale-like or absent. Stem more or less copiously jointed. Cotyledons not intertwisted. 2
2. Plants destitute of barbed spines. Joints of the stem elongated. Ovules not enveloped by the funicle. [Subfamily CEREOIDEAE.] 3
Plants bearing barbed spines, at least upon the fruit. Joints of the stem short, more or less ovoid. Perianth regular, more or less wheel-shaped.
Ovules enveloped by the funicle. [Subfamily OPUNTIOIDEAE, tribe
OPUNTIEAE.] 4
3. Perianth funnel- or salver-shaped, with obviously united segments. Ovules numerous, on long funicles. Terrestrial plants.—Species 1. Cultivated and sometimes naturalized in various regions. A decorative plant with edible fruits. [Tribe ECHINOCACTEAE.] Cereus Haw.

BEGONIACEAE.