Nesaea floribunda Sond.
A Flowering branch. B Flower without the petals, cut lengthwise. C Petal. D Cross-section of ovary.
Fruit dry.—Species 7. South Africa. Some species yield dyes or serve as ornamental plants. Passerina L.
16. Disc hypogynous, consisting of 1-4, usually 4, free or partly united, narrow, almost thread-shaped scales. Calyx-tube long; segments deciduous. Ovary hairy. Shrubs or trees. Flowers in terminal racemes or spikes, hermaphrodite.—Species 1. Naturalized in the
Mascarene Islands. Ornamental plant. Wikstroemia Endl.
Disc minute and ring-shaped, or wanting. 17
17. Fruit a drupe. Flowers hermaphrodite. Calyx-tube long. Stigma large.
Shrubs or trees. Flowers in heads, racemes, or panicles.—Species 4.
North Africa. Poisonous plants yielding bast-fibres, tanning and dyeing materials, and medicaments; they also serve as ornamental plants. Daphne L.
Fruit a nut. Disc none. Ovary short-stalked. Herbs, undershrubs, or shrubs. Leaves alternate. Flowers solitary or fascicled, axillary.—Species
10. North Africa. Some species are used as medicinal or fibre-plants. Thymelaea Endl.
[FAMILY 172.] ELAEAGNACEAE
Shrubs or trees, covered with scaly hairs. Leaves alternate, entire, without stipules. Flowers in axillary fascicles or racemes, 4-merous, very rarely 5-8-merous, hermaphrodite or polygamous. Calyx white or yellow within, valvate in bud. Petals none. Stamens perigynous, as many as and alternate with the sepals. Filaments very short. Anthers attached at the back, opening by longitudinal slits. Ovary superior, but tightly enclosed by the concave receptacle, 1-celled, with a single erect and inverted ovule. Style simple, long; stigma entire, capitate. Fruit a nut enclosed by the succulent calyx-tube. Seed with a hard coat and scanty albumen or without albumen; embryo straight, with a minute radicle and thick, fleshy cotyledons.
Genus 1, species 2. Naturalized in North Africa and the Island of Mauritius.
Ornamental plants yielding timber and medicaments. “Oleaster.” Elaeagnus L.
SUBORDER MYRTINEAE
[FAMILY 173.] LYTHRACEAE
Leaves entire, usually stipulate. Flowers 3-8-merous, hermaphrodite. Sepals valvate in the bud. Petals inserted at the throat of the calyx, usually crumpled in the bud, sometimes absent. Stamens nearly always inserted below the petals. Anthers fixed by the back. Ovary superior, completely or incompletely 2-6-celled. Ovules numerous in each cell, attached at the inner angle, ascending, inverted, with ventral raphe. Style simple or wanting; stigma entire or 2-lobed. Fruit dry. Seeds exalbuminous; embryo straight.—Genera 12, species 90. (Plate 110.)