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Trees or shrubs (rarely herbs) with often tough bark, alternate or opposite, often stipulate leaves. Flowers regular, hermaphrodite, rarely unisexual. — Sepals 4 or 5, free or connate, usually valvate. Petals 4 or 5, free, entire, lobed or cut. Torus generally conspicuous. Stamens usually numerous, free, inserted on the torus; filaments filiform; anthers 2-celled, often opening by terminal pores. Ovary sessile on the torus, 2-10-celled; style simple, usually divided at the apex into as many divisions as cells; ovules few or many, attached to the axis of the cells. Fruit very variable. Seeds generally with fleshy albumen, and broad, flat, thin cotyledons.
A very large tropical and subtropical Order of plants, to which the English Lime-tree (Tilia) belongs, together with the Indian Jute (Corchorus), valued for its fibre.
| Leaves alternate. Petals entire. Capsule echinate … | 1. ENTELEA |
| Leaves opposite. Petals crenate or lacerate. Berry 2–4-celled … | 2. ARISTOTELIA [1] |
| Leaves alternate. Petals lacerate. Drupe 1-celled … | 3. ELÆOCARPUS [1] |
[1] Aristotelia and Elaeocarpus are now classified in the family Elaeocarpaceae, which lies in the order Oxalidales, and the corresponding pages are not included within this transcription.
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