Illustrations of the principal natural orders of the vegetable kingdom / prepared for the Science and Art Department of the Council of Education by Professor Oliver ; the plates by W.H. Fitch.

  • Oliver, Daniel, 1830-1916.
Date:
1874
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Illustrations of the principal natural orders of the vegetable kingdom / prepared for the Science and Art Department of the Council of Education by Professor Oliver ; the plates by W.H. Fitch. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Hypericinese; differing in having usually alternate leaves and axillary flowers, as well as in some variable floral characters. Distribution.—Dispersed throughout the Tropics of both Hemispheres, with several species extending into the North Temperate zone, especially in Eastern Asia and Japan, where they form an important element in the woody evergreen vegetation. Flowers regular, often showy. Petals frequently connate below. Stamens indefinite, free or monadelphous, and then adherent to the base of the petals. Pistil syncarpous ; ovary with axile placentation. USES, &c.—Almost the only member of the Natural Order prominent on economic grounds is the Tea-shrub {Thea chinensis), a native probably of the mountainous tract extending from the Eastern Himalaya to China. Not- withstanding its cultivation from time immemorial in China, Tea has not been observed in a wild state in that country: it occurs native, however, in the jungles of Assam in North-Eastern India. Tea, of which upwards of one hundred millions of pounds are imported annually, consists of the dried leaves prepared by peculiar methods ; rapidly for Green and more slowly for Black Tea. The principal source of supply is China, but Japan and Northern India, into the latter of which the Chinese cultivated varieties have been introduced, contribute a portion. Closely allied to Tea is the Garden Camellia (Camellia japonica), long introduced from Japan into European greenhouses, of which it is a chief winter ornament. The Souari-nut of South America is the produce of a genus (Caryocar) allied to Tern- stroemiaceae, but differing in having compound digitate leaves. GUTTlFERiE is another exotic Order, exclusively tropical, allied to Hypericineae and Ternstroemiaceae, with opposite leaves as in the former; differing in having usually unisexual flowers and other floral characters. It is chiefly remarkable as including the Gamboge tree {Garcinia Morelia) of India, and several valued tropical fruits ; amongst the rest, the Mangosteen {Garcinia Mangostana) of Malacca, and the West Indian Mammee Apple (Mammea americana). The Order is generally characterised by the prevalence of a coloured purgative resinous juice, readily exuding when the bark is cut, as Gamboge.