. The classification of flowering plants. Plants. 372 FLOWERING PLANTS is thick and leathery, or sometimes pulp}', when the fruit is a drupe (fig. 184). A drupe-like fruit is also formed by the fleshy development of the persistent base of the receptacle. In these latter cases the fruit is distributed by the agency of birds; the dry fruits which are very light and sometimes bear hairs, resembling a pappus, are carried by the A^dnd. Endosperm is generally scanty or absent, and the embrj^o is large vdih thick convex cotyledons and upwardly pointing radicle (fig. 184, B). The family contains 40 ge
. The classification of flowering plants. Plants. 372 FLOWERING PLANTS is thick and leathery, or sometimes pulp}', when the fruit is a drupe (fig. 184). A drupe-like fruit is also formed by the fleshy development of the persistent base of the receptacle. In these latter cases the fruit is distributed by the agency of birds; the dry fruits which are very light and sometimes bear hairs, resembling a pappus, are carried by the A^dnd. Endosperm is generally scanty or absent, and the embrj^o is large vdih thick convex cotyledons and upwardly pointing radicle (fig. 184, B). The family contains 40 genera and nearly 500 species. It is cos- mopohtan with the exception of the polar regions, but specially de- veloped in South Africa and Aus- tralia, and in the northern hemi- sphere in the Mediterranean region and the Asiatic steppes, forming a characteristic element of the vegetation of the latter. Generally they are dry-country plants. The genera are, as a rule, of limited distribution, with exceptions, such as our British representative Daphne, which spreads through- out Europe and Central Asia to China and Japan and southwards to the Indo-Malayan Archipelago. The small and somewhat anomalous genus Dm^e^e^, a low-growing plant A\ith a moss-like habit, has a wide distribution in the southern hemisphere, being represented bj species in Tierra del Fuego, New Zealand, Tasmania and Austraha, Borneo and New Fig. 184. A. Flower of Daphne Mezereum. B. Drupe of same (e, endosperm); both in vertical section; enlarged. C. Floral dia- gram of Gnidia aurea. D. Floral diagram of Daphne. (A, B aft€r Wettstein; C, D after Eichler.) Family 11. ELAEAGNACEAE A small family of generally much branched erect shrubs, some- times trees, densel}^ clothed with silver}^, brownish or golden- coloured scale- or stellate hairs. The leaves are alternate or opposite, and entire, without stipules. The flowers are axillary, either solitary or in clusters of a few, or in short racemes. In Elaea
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectplants, bookyear1904
