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Dilleniaceae (from the genus Dillenia, in honor of John James Dillenius, a professor of botany at Oxford). Dillenia Family. Fig. 37. Trees or shrubs, often climbing: leaves alternate, very rarely opposite: flowers bisexual, regular, hypogynous; sepals 5, rarely more or fewer, imbricated, persistent; petals 5 or fewer, imbricated, deciduous; stamens numerous, often very numerous, free or united in groups, anthers opening by slits or pores; carpels several, usually distinct, but often united; ovules numerous: fruit a follicle, or a berry or a capsule, or inclosed in a fleshy calyx, which simulates a berry; seed albuminous, usually with an aril.
Nearly all the 11 genera and about 200 species are tropical, distributed chiefly in Australia, India, and tropical America, rarely in Africa. Of these Dillenia, Hibbertia and Tetracera are the largest genera. The family is related to the Ranunculaceae and Magnoliaceae on the one hand, and to the Theaceae on the other. Its closest affinity is with the latter family. The woody habit, polypetalous flowers, very numerous stamens, usually separate carpels, albuminous seeds with arils, and straight embryo, are characteristic.
The Dilleniaceae are astringent, for which reason some are used medicinally; the fruits of some are eaten because acid, others are used as tonics. Davilla of Brazil has been used for wounds; Curatella for ulcers; Tetracera aspera of Guiana as a sudorific and diuretic, also for syphilis, intermittent fevers and scurvy. The astringent bark of a species of Dillenia is said to have been used in Asia for ulcerated sores. The acid and inedible fruit of Dillenia speciosa serves to season dishes; and a syrup of the juice of the unripe fruit allays coughs, assists expectoration and is said to cure angina; the bark is also used for tanning. Many species of Dillenia furnish timber in the Indo region. The rough, silicious leaves of many of the tribe Tetracerae, especially Curatella americana, have been used in Brazil to polish wood in place of sandpaper. Some of the climbing species furnish drinking-water by incisions in the stem.
The flowers of many species are very beautiful, but few forms are in cultivation. In this country the only one apparently is Dillenia indica, a large magnolia-ike tree with flowers 9 inches in diameter, grown in southern California and in Florida.
By recent authors (Gilg, in Engler and Prantl), Actinidia, a genus of vines from eastern Asia, has been placed in this family, although formerly included in the Theaceae. A few species of Actinidia are in the American trade.
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