for the most part distinct; the albumen usually large, and the embryo small, and sometimes vitellose.

(3725.) The Berberiana are drupaceous Ranunculine, with deciduous sepals and petals, indefinite stamens, or, when definite, opposite the petals, and the ovaries few or many, and distinct, and the albumen sometimes small.

(3726.) The Ranunculiana are non-drupaceous Ranunculina, with an imbricate, rarely valvate perianth, indefinite stamens; ovaries mostly indefinite, multiseriate and distinct, the albumen large, and the embryo straight.

(3727.) The Nelumbiana are herbaceous aquatic Ranunculina, with large floating leaves, carpels distinct or connate, and the embryo enclosed in the persistent vitellus.

BERBERIANE.

(3728.) Two types only are comprehended in this subsection; the one called Menispermacea, from Menispermum, the moon-seed, and the other Berberacea,

A. Menispermum Canadense. (a) Stamineous flower. (b) Fruit, one carpel being abortive. (c) Transverse section. (d) Longitudinal section of fruit, two carpels being abortive. (e) Seed invested with the endocarp. (f) Ditto naked. (g) The curved embryo.

B. Berberis vulgaris. Cutting, to shew the foliage, aculeate stipules, and inflorescence. (a) Flower separated and expanded. (b) A petal detached. (e) A stamen, to shew the valvular dehiscence of the anthers. (d) The fruit. (e) Ditto cut lengthwise, to shew the two erect seeds. (f) A seed. (g) Longitudinal section of ditto, to shew the embryo. (h) Embryo detached.

from Berberis, the common barberry. The affinity of these groups is close, and their connexions with the surrounding ones not slight. De Candolle mentions

their monadelphous stamens as a point of similitude between the Menispermaceœ and Bromacea, and those genera which have stipulate leaves, as Caperonia, establish a connexion with the Malvacea. The Menispermacea also approach some of the Anonacea, with which, however, the Berberacea are perhaps the most intimately connected.

(3729.) MENISPERMACEE. The genera associated to form this type are climbing shrubs or perennial herbaceous plants, with alternate, petiolate, and, in general, cordate or peltate leaves, simple, rarely compound, mucronate, and destitute of stipules. The inflorescence is, in general, axillary, racemose or paniculate, the flowers are small, diœcious (by abortion ?), rarely monoecious or polygamous.

The sepals and petals are indistinguishable from each other, arranged in ternary or quaternary, seldom in quinary series, and the latter are sometimes abortive. The stamens are usually monadelphous, rarely free, sometimes opposite the petals, and equal to them in number, at others, but less frequently, 2-3 or 4 times as many. The anthers are adnate, and usually adhering throughout their whole length to the filaments, and dehiscent extrorsely. The germen consists of several carpels (or by abortion of a single ovary), subcoalescent by the bases of the styles, which are terminal, and the stigmata simple; sometimes the carpels are connate, the germen multilocular, or by abortion 1-celled.

The fruit is drupaceous or baccate, each carpel 1-seeded, oblique or lunulate, compressed, and the seeds similar to it in form. The embryo is curved or peripheric, (i. e. turned in the direction of the circumference.) The albumen, when present, spare and fleshy, (but often absent); the cotyledons are flat, sometimes lying face to face, at others distant, and even situated in separate cells of the seed.

(3730.) Differentially considered, the Menispermacea are amphipetalous Berberiana, with twining stems, cordate or peltate leaves, small separated flowers, anthers dehiscent by chinks, and a curved embryo.

(3731.) The Menispermacea are distributable into three subtypes, which, from Schizandra, Lardizabala, and Menispermum, are called the Schizandridæ, Lardizabalide, and Menispermida.

(3732.) The Schizandride are albuminous Menispermacea, with numerous carpella seated on a long conical torus.

(3733.) The Lardizabalidæ are exalbuminous Menispermacea, with compound leaves, and many-celled many-seeded fruits;

(3734.) While the Menispermida are exalbuminous Menispermacea, with simple leaves, and 1-celled 1-seeded carpels.

(3735.) MENISPERMIDE. The several species of Cissampelos, and other genera, with peltate leaves, shew the affinity of this group with the Tropaolacea of the preceding section. C. Pareira is the true Pareira brava of medicine, once much esteemed in ischuria and various diseases of the bladder. It is a bittersweet diuretic, but not at present often employed. C. Mauritania and Abuta candicans and rufescens have similar properties, though in a less degree, and their roots are often mixed with those of the real Pareira brava. The roots of C. ebracteata, the Orelha de Onca of Brazil, is there considered as an antidote against serpent-bites; and those of C. ovalifolia, which are very bitter, are said to be an effectual remedy in cases of intermittent fevers. The peltate leaves of C. glaberrima have a stimulating smell and a pungent taste, resembling those of the trophy cress.

(3736.) Calumba or Colomba-root, so much prized as an astringent stomachic bitter, and which has been so successfully employed in the cure of dysentery and severe cases of diarrhoea, is the root of the Cocculus (or Menispermum) palmatus. Several other species of Cocculus, as C. cordifolius, C. platyphyllus, C. peltatus, C. cinerascens, and C. crispus, are also commended as valuable tonics.

(3737.) The berries of others, as C. flavescens, C. Plukenetii, C. lacunosus, and C. suberosus, are deleterious, and are frequently used to intoxicate or poison fish. The latter affords the well-known deadly drug called Cocculus Indicus, which is here often employed to destroy vermin, and also by poachers to capture fish. This, its chief Indian use, being forbidden in England by law, it is, as Don says, not easy to account for the large importations of the berries as an article of trade, unless they serve to adulterate fermented liquors, and to impart to beer an adventitious intoxicating quality. Such frauds are however prohibited under heavy penalties. The active principle of Cocculus Indicus is believed to be an alkaloid, which has been separated, and is called Picrotoxia: M. Boullay has also detected a peculiar acid in the berries, which he has named the Menispermic. Cocculus Indicus has been recommended in the treatment of paralysis, and in some cases its administration would seem to have been serviceable in restoring lost power to palsied limbs.

(3738.) The bruised stems of C. fibraurea yield a yellow dye, which is used instead of turmeric, but its colour is neither so bright nor durable. The roots and stems are also esteemed as diuretics and deobstruents. Coscinium fenestratum is the "knotted plant," or Bangwell-gettah, of the Cingalese, who swallow small slices of the wood in decoction, considering it an admirable stomachic.

(3739.) LARDIZABALIDE. The fruits of Holböllia latifolia and H. angustifolia, natives of Nepal, are both eatable; as is also that of Lardizabala biternata, which is sold in the markets of Peru and Chili under the names of Guilbogui or Coguillvochi.

(3740.) SCHIZANDRIDE. The properties of these plants are as yet unknown; and they are at present chiefly interesting on account of the connexion they establish, by their albuminous seeds, between this type and the Annonacea of the following subsection, to which by some writers they are appended.

(3741.) BERBERACEE. Berberis, and its typical associates, are shrubs or perennial herbaceous plants, for the most part smooth, and with simple or compound, alternate leaves, destitute of stipules. The inflorescence is racemose or paniculate, sometimes solitary, and the flowers regular and united. The sepals are 6 (4 or 3) biseriate, deciduous, and furnished externally with petaloid scales. The petals equal in number to the sepals, and opposite to them, (seldom twice as many,) and in general with an appendage internally at their bases; the stamens are equal to the petals in number, and opposite to them; the filaments are short, free, and sometimes irritable; the anthers oblong, adnate, 2-celled, and dehiscent by elas. tically recurving valves. The germen is 1-celled and many-ovuled, the style subterminal and very short, and the stigma thick and suborbiculate. The fruit is baccate or capsular, and 1-celled; the seeds 2-3, seldom solitary, are usually attached to the lower part of the lateral placenta, and are erect or suboblique. The albumen fleshy or subcorneous, the embryo straight, axile, and slender, with the radicle more or less thickened at its extremity, and the cotyledons flat. (3742.) Hence, differentially considered, the Berberacea are non-scandent

Berberiance with united flowers, the stamens and petals opposite the sepals, the anthers dehiscent by recurved elastic valves, the carpels solitary, the seeds albuminous, and the embryo straight.

(3743.) The Berberaceæ are all innocuous plants; the fruits of several, as of the common barberry, are eatable. They are in general acid, and more or less astringent. The acid present in the barberry is the oxalic, and it renders the fruit so sour that but few birds will eat it. When preserved with sugar, it is however excellent as a dessert, or pickled as a garnish. A very refreshing drink is made by bruising the berries and steeping them in water, which is considered serviceable in fevers. The barberry was once an officinal plant, but it has been long expunged from our Pharmacopœias. The astringent principle is so abundant in the bark of Berberis vulgaris that it is used in Poland to tan leather. It also affords, with alum, a beautiful yellow dye. Berberis tinctoria and lutea are likewise used as yellow dye-stuffs; and the wood of B. ilicifolia, from its elasticity, is made into bows by the inhabitants of Terra del Fuego.

(3744.) A prejudice exists against the growth of the barberry in hedges or near corn-fields, as it is said to render the corn in its vicinity, and even to the distance of 3 or 400 yards across a field, barren. There seems, however, to be but little foundation for the belief that this sterility is attributable to the barberry.

(3745.) The barberry is remarkable for the conversion of the lower leaflets of its compound leaves into spinacules by the abortion of the sarcophyl, and the induration of the ribs or pleurophyl. These spiny leaflets, as well as those which retain the ordinary development, are articulated with the petiole.

(3746.) Leontice thalictroides likewise requires especial notice, from the peculiarity of its ovary not enlarging with the growth of the seeds, which hence, in their progress towards maturity, burst through the stunted pericarp, and become absolutely naked when ripe, although invested with a pericarpial covering when young.

RANUNCULIANE.

(3747.) Five types or natural families of plants are included in this subsection; the three first of which should probably however be regarded as only subdivisions of a common type. Anona, Magnolia, Dillenia, Ranunculus, and Poonia, the normal genera of these several types, give their names to each respectively.

(3748.) ANONACEÆ. The custard apple (Anona), with its typical allies, are trees or shrubs, bearing alternate, simple, entire, exstipulate leaves. The inflorescence is axillary, sometimes opposite the leaves, the peduncles short, and one or few flowered, and the flowers united and regular.

The calyx is formed of 3-4 persistent sepals, usually connate, (rarely free,) and imbricate in æstivation. The petals are 6, biseriate, alternate with each other, coriaceous, and valvate in æstivation, sometimes (but rarely) wanting; the stamens are indefinite, (seldom definite, as in Bocagea,) adpressed, and covering a large hypogynous disk. They are free, short, more or less angular, the anthers adnate, extrorse, and dehiscent longitudinally, with a glandular connectivum that is often large, 4-cornered, and nectariferous. The carpels are numerous, (seldom solitary, as in Monodora,) the styles are short, and the stigma simple. The fruit consists of numerous carpels, (rarely by abortion few or solitary,) either succulent or dry, stalked or sessile, discrete or coadunate, and 1 or many-seeded.

The seeds are ovate or ovato-oblong, attached to the sutural placenta in one or two rows. The testa is membrano-crustaceous and brittle. The tegmen membranous and folded inwards, or forming many processes, entering the albumen,

A. Ranunculus acris. Specimen to shew the root, exstipulate leaves, with expanded petioles and flowers.

(a) Flower separate. (b) Numerous carpella. (c) One carpel separated. (d) Section of ditto, to shew the albumen and embryo.

B. Hibbertia volubilis. Cutting, to shew leaves and flower. (a) Flower
deprived of the petals to shew the alternate sepals; one stamen only left
with the pistils. (b) The aggregate carpels. (c) A seed, with its
incomplete arillus. (d) Section of the seed, to shew the albumen and
small erect embryo.

c. Anona squamosa. Cutting, to shew leaves without stipules, and
the ternary arrangement of the flowers. (a) Flower separated, the
ternary disposition of the perianth, and numerous stamens. (b) Fruit.
(c) Section of ditto. (d) Seed. (e) Ditto with the tegument
removed. (f) Section to shew the ruminated albumen.
embryo.

(g) The

which hence is ruminated. The embryo is small and seated at the base of the rimose albumen, which is hard and fleshy, the cotyledons short and entire, and the radicle subrotund.

(3749.) Differentially considered, the Anonacea are therefore syn- or apocarpous Ranunculiana, with exstipulate leaves, rimose anthers, and ruminated albumen.

(3750.) Three chief variations are noticeable in the structure of the fruit of the Anomacea, which are characteristic of three districts, in which the included genera may be arranged.

(3751.) MONODOREE. In Monodora the fruit is formed of a solitary carpellum. Eupomatia, generally referred to this group on account of its solitary fruit, which