Moreæ, Endl. Prodr. 40, (1833); Gaudich, in Freycinet, 509; Meisner, p. 350; Endl. xcii.-Pholeosantheæ, Blume Bijdr. 436, (1825).—Sycoideæ, Link Handb. 1. 292. (1829).

DIAGNOSIS.-Urtical Exogens, with solitary suspended ovules, and a hooked albuminous embryo with a superior radicle.

Trees or shrubs, with a milky juice, sometimes climbing. Leaves of various forms and texture, very commonly lobed and rough, with large stipules often rolled up, inclosing the younger leaves, and leaving a ringed scar when they drop off. Flowers

3

2

4

5 Fig. CLXXX. very inconspicuous, &, collected in heads, or spikes, or catkins. ¿ calyx 0, or 3-4-parted, imbricated. Stamens 3-4, inserted into the base of the calyx and opposite its segments; filaments generally shrivelled on the inner face; anthers 2-celled, opening lengthwise. sepals 3-4-5, sometimes in two rows. Ovary 1-celled, occasionally (by accident?) 2-celled. Ovules solitary, pendulous, or amphitropal, with the foramen uppermost; style terminal, bifid, with the lobes often unequal. Fruit, small nuts or utricles, 1-seeded, inclosed within a succulent receptacle, or collected in a fleshy head formed by the consolidated succulent calyx. Seed solitary, with a thin brittle integument. Embryo lying in fleshy albumen, hooked, with the radicle long, superior, folded down towards the cotyledons.

The whole of the genera of this Order have either a remarkably enlarged receptacle, upon or within which the flowers are arranged, as is seen in Ficus, and even more strikingly in Dorstenia, or a tendency towards its formation is indicated, when the flowers are gathered into heads of a spheroidal form, as in the Mulberry and Osage Orange (Maclura). In this manner the Order of Morads passes into that of the Artocarpads, from which indeed it hardly differs except in having an abundance of albumen, and a hooked slender embryo. Strictly speaking, however, albumen occurs in the Artocarpads in Phytocrene, which certainly must belong to them, and in Pyrenacantha, which must, I think, be also referred thither, notwithstanding its somewhat different habit. In the last edition of this work, Batis was referred to the present Order; but I now see, that while the species so named by Roxburgh certainly stand next to Morus, the West Indian plant to which the designation properly applies must be stationed elsewhere. The tenacity of life in some plants of this family is remarkable. A specimen of Ficus australis lived and grew suspended in the air, without earth, in one of the hothouses in the Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, for eight months, without experiencing any apparent inconvenience.

None of the Morads are European, for the Mulberries and common Fig have been brought from the East. The species inhabit the temperate and tropical latitudes of both

Fig.CLXXX.-Morus alba. 1. A male flower; 2. clusters of females; 3. a female flower separate: 4. the same with a part of the calyx cut away; 5 a vertical section of a ripe achænium; 6. a cluster of fruit consisting of succulent calyxes enclosing achænia.

hemispheres, often constituting vast forests, in the case of the various species of Fig, which in all hot countries have generally very thick trunks, with extremely strong boughs, and a prodigious crown. Travellers say, that the colossal wild Fig-trees are among the most grateful presents of Nature to hot countries: the shade of their magnificent head refreshing the traveller when he reposes under their incredibly wide-spreading branches and dark green shining foliage. In India, two of the species have historical celebrity. Of these the Banyan-tree, so remarkable for its vast rooting branches, is Ficus indica; the Pippul or sacred Fig of the same country, readily known by its rootless branches, and its heart-shaped leaves with long attenuated points, is Ficus religiosa. Blume also relates, that a Ficus microcarpa, which he planted before the door of his house in Java, had in seven years covered a space of above 60 (square ?) feet with its dense shade. And he describes a sacred specimen of enormous stature, growing in the same island, at a place called Batu-Tulies, from whose huge branches he gathered as many as 34 species of parasites and epiphytes, which were not, however, half what might have been collected. The genus Ficus, indeed, is one of those which travellers describe as most conducing to the peculiarities of a tropical scene. Mr. Hinds (Ann. N. H. xv. 100) points out the complex appearance of the main stem of many species; their immense horizontal branches, their proportionate lowness, and the vast number of smaller stems in every stage of development, some just protruding from the horizontal limbs, others hanging midway between the leafy canopy and earth, displaying on each thick rounded extremity an enormous spongiole, while many reach the soil, and having attained strength and size act as columns to sustain the whole structure. "The tropical forest abounds with these in every variety of growth and apparent distortion." Caoutchouc is furnished by many of this Order in great abundance; all the India Rubber of continental India is obtained from Ficus elastica; in Java, other species yield this substance of excellent quality, as do F. Radula, elliptica, and prinoides in America. Their milky fluid is in some instances bland, and actually employed as a beverage; for of the different plants which have been occasionally brought to Europe under the name of Cow-trees, most are Figs. One of these has been figured by M. De Candolle, under the name of Ficus Saussureana, (Mém. de la Soc. Phys. de Genéve); and others have been described by M. Desvaux, Ann. Sc. 18. 309. The juice is, however, in many cases excessively acrid; that of Ficus septica is emetic, and of F. toxicaria and Dæmona, a virulent poison; indeed the milky juice of the cultivated Fig itself possesses considerable acridity, causing a burning sensation in the throat when chewed. In some species the juice assumes a resinous character, when discharged from parts attacked

Fig. CLXXXI

by Cocci, as is the case with F. indica, benghalensis, and Tsjela, which form a sort of gum-lac in the East Indies. Notwithstanding the prevalence of an acrid secretion, the fruit of many species appears to decompose it and convert it into sugar, or some other substance; hence we have the eatable Fig of the shops from the acrid Ficus Carica, and a fruit of inferior quality, but still eatable, from F. religiosa, Benjamina, pumila, auriculata, Rumphii, benghalensis, aspera, Granatum, and the Egyptian Sycomorus, whose imperishable wood is said to have been used in the construction of the cases in which the mummies are inclosed. On the other hand the common Mulberry, Morus nigra, has an agreeable sub-acid succulent fruit, for the sake of which it was long since introduced from Persia; and that of the White Mulberry, and other species, both Asiatic and American, is eatable though not esteemed; but these fruits are not entirely harmless, causing diarrhoea if indulged in too freely, and their roots are both cathartic and anthelmintic, thus indicating the presence in their system of the acrid secretions of the Order. There is also a Brazilian Ficus anthelmintica. The Mulberries contain mannite and succinic acid, according to the chemists. Among other uses of less extensive application are the following:-Dorstenia contrayerva, brasiliensis, opifera, and others, have bitterish roots, and a remarkable overpowering odour, with a little pungency. They are supposed to be antidotes to the bites of venomous animals, and certainly possess stimulant, sudorific, and tonic qualities; but they lose them by keeping, and soon become inert; they are also emetic, and are Fig. CLXXXI.-Dorstenia contrayerva.

employed for the same purposes as Aristolochia Serpentaria. A kind of paper is manufactured from Broussonetia papyrifora, whose fruit is succulent and insipid. The fruit of Maclura aurantiaca, (the Osage Orange), is as large as the fist, orange-coloured, and filled with a yellow foetid slime, with which the native tribes smear their faces when going to war. The wood of Maclura tinctoria is the dyewood called Fustick; it contains morine, a peculiar colouring matter; its fruit is pleasant, and used in North American medicine, for the same purposes as the black Mulberry in Europe. According to Martius, both it and other species of the same genus yield fustick in Brazil. It is to be observed, that the latter name is also given to the wood of Rhus Cotinus. The seeds of Ficus religiosa are supposed by the doctors of India to be cooling and alterative. The bark of Ficus racemosa is slightly astringent, and has particular virtues in hæmaturia and menorrhagia; the juice of its root is considered a powerful tonic. The white glutinous juice of Ficus indica is applied to the teeth and gums, to ease the toothache; it is also considered a valuable application to the soles of the feet when cracked and inflamed; the bark is supposed to be a powerful tonic, and is administered by the Hindoos in diabetes. Is it not possible that the Indian poison with which the Nagas tip their arrows, of the tree that produces which nothing is known, may belong to this tribe! See, for an account of its effects, Brewster's Journal, 9. 219.

The Abyssinians eat the inner bark of Ficus panifica, which tastes somewhat like bread.-Ach. Rich.

See Gasparrini, Ricerche sulla natura del Caprifico e del Fico, e sulla Caprificazione, 4to, Napoli, 1845.

Fig. CLXXXII.-Perpendicular section of the succulent hollow receptacle of Ficus Carica.

ORDER LXXXVIII. ARTOCARPACEE.-ARTOCARPADS.

Artocarpeæ, R. Brown in Congo, (1818); Blume By. Dr. 479; Ed. prim. No. 80, (1830); Burtl. Ord. Nat. 104; Endl. xciii.; Meisner, p. 349; Bennet in Horsfield, p. 48.

DIAGNOSIS.-Urtical Exogens, with milky juice, large convolute stipules, solitary erect or suspended ovules, a straight exalbuminous embryo, and superior radicle.

Trees or shrubs, abounding in milky juice. Leaves alternate, simple, often lobed, with large deciduous stipules. Flowers, always collected into dense heads of some kind.

d calyx sometimes 0, and then the stamens mixed with scales; or consisting of 2 to 4 sepals, which are often united into a tube, with scarcely any limb. Stamens opposite the sepals, and usually of the same number; filaments sometimes connate; anthers 2-celled, erect or incumbent, rarely peltate, and opening all round into 2 plates. Flowers variously arranged over a fleshy receptacle, which is concave or globose, hemispherical or spiked; calyx tubular, with a 2 to 4-cleft or entire limb. Ovary free, 1-celled; ovule either erect and orthotropal, or amphitropal and parietal, or pendulous and anatropal, in any case with the foramen uppermost ; style lateral or terminal, usually bifid, occasionally undivided with a simple lateral or radiating stigma. Fruit variable, surrounded by a fleshy involucre, or com

The massive heads into which the fruits of the Breadfruit tree are collected represent the typical condition of the genera of this Order, whose milky juice has long since suggested its separation from Nettleworts; an opinion, however, in which it was difficult to agree, so long as the Fig and its allies were associated with it by that character. Now, however, that such plants have been more carefully studied, it appears that the old Urticaceous Order should rather be regarded

as an Alliance, of which the Artocarpads form one of the Orders. In that point of view the Artocarpads will be distinguished from Hempworts and Morads by their straight embryo with large cotyledons, and from Antidesmads by their anthers and solitary ovules. From Nettleworts the difference is rather one of habit than of real structure, as far as our information at present goes. Brown, indeed, who first proposed the Order, stated that the ovule was erect, which, however, is not the case in either Artocarpus or Maclura, both which have a suspended ovule. Endlicher, on the other hand, relies upon the absence of albumen; but a trace of it occurs in Artocarpus, and in Phytocrene it is extremely abundant, to say nothing of Pyrenacantha. Perhaps the large convolute stipules may form a further characteristic of Artocarpads.

With respect to Phytocrene, which is considered by M. Decaisne identical with Gynocephalium, I find that it is remarkable for a very large quantity of granular albumen, which Blume says is altogether wanting in Gynocephalium; I therefore retain it as a distinct genus.

2

4

Fig. CLXXXIV.

The Order is not without anomalies. Phytocrene and Pyrenacantha have copious albumen. In Antiaris the ovary adheres to the involucre. It is doubtful whether all yield milk.

The tropics, and the tropics only, of both worlds, are the stations of these plants. The most important plant of the Order is the Breadfruit, Artocarpus incisa, the most virulent the Upas tree, Antiaris toxicaria. Like Morads the species afford caoutchouc and an eatable fruit.

The edible quality of the Breadfruit appears to be owing to the presence of a large quantity of starch in its succulent heads. The Jack, Artocarpus integrifolia, has a similar quality, but is inferior. The venom of the Antjar poison, Antiaris toxicaria, is due to the presence of that most deadly substance strychnia; notwithstanding the exaggerated statements that have been made regarding this tree, the Upas of the Javanese, there remains no doubt that it is a plant of extreme virulence, even linen fabricated from its tough fibre being so acrid as to verify the story of the shirt of Nessus; for it excites the most distressing itching if insufficiently prepared.

However, the seeds are always wholesome; those of a plant nearly allied to Cecropia, called Musanga by the Africans of the Gold Coast, as well as of Artocarpus, are eatable as nuts. The famous Cow Tree, or Palo de Vaca, of South America, which yields a Fig. CLXXXV. copious supply of a rich and wholesome milk, as good as that of the cow, is a species of Brosimum. It has been analysed by various chemists, especially Mr. Edward Solly, who found in it as much as 30.57 per cent. of galactin. -See Phil. Mag., Nov. 1837. Brosimum alicastrum abounds in a tenacious gummy milk; its leaves and young shoots are much eaten by cattle, but when they become old they cease to be innocuous. The roasted nuts are used instead of bread, and have much

Fig. CLXXXIV.-1. Nut of Phytocrene: 2. the same, showing the seed in its interior; 3. a cross section of the seed, showing the cotyledons and granular albumen; 4. the club-shaped radicle. Fig. CLXXXV.-Artocarpus integrifolia.