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MORACEAE

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Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 814 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MORACEAE , in See also:

botany, an See also:order of See also:dicotyledons, belonging to the See also:series Urticiflorae, to which belongs also the See also:nettle See also:family (Urticaceae, q.v). It contains about 6o genera with about See also:I000 See also:species, mostly trees or shrubs, widely distributed in the Fig (Ficus carica), Shoot bearing Leaves and See also:Fruit., I, Inflorescence cut lengthwise to show the numerous See also:flowers crowded on the inner See also:surface. 2, A See also:female See also:flower, enlarged. 3, Fruit cut lengthwise. warmer parts of the See also:earth. The largest genus, Ficus (the fig, q.v.), contains 600 species spread through tropical and sub-tropical regions, and includes the See also:common fig of the Mediterranean region (Ficus carica), the See also:banyan (F. bengalensis), and the indiarubber plant (F. elastica) ; many of the species are epiphytic, sometimes clinging so tightly See also:round the See also:host-plant with their roots as to strangle it. Morus (mulberry, q.v.) contains ten species of trees or bushes in See also:north temperate regions and in the mountains of the tropics. Artocarpus, including A. incisa (See also:bread-fruit, q.v.), and A. integrifolia (See also:jack-See also:tree), has See also:forty species, chiefly natives in the See also:Indian See also:Archipelago. The See also:plants are See also:rich in latex which may be very poisonous as in Antiaris toxicaria, the Upastree (q.v.) of See also:Java, or sweet and nutritious as in Brosimum galactodendron, the cow-tree (q.v.) of See also:Venezuela. The latex often yields caoutchouc as in species of Ficus (e.g. F. elastica), See also:Cecropia (q.v.), a tropical See also:American genus with See also:thirty to forty species, and others. End of Shoot showing Stipule, s, of See also:India-See also:rubber Plant (Ficus elastica).

The leaves, which are entire or more or less divided, are stipulate, the stipules being small and lateral as in Morus and allied See also:

general or intrapetiolar, each pair uniting to See also:form a cap round the younger leaves, as in Ficus and allied genera, and very well shown in F. elastica, the common india-rubber plant of greenhouses. The plants are monoecious or dioecious, and the small unisexual flowers are See also:borne in cymose inflorescences which are condensed into apparent racemes, spikes or heads.' In the fig they coalesce to form a fleshy hollow See also:axis on the inner See also:face of which the flowers are situated, while in Dorstenia they form a See also:flat, often lobed, expansion with the flowers sunk on the upper face. The flower resembles Mulberry (Morus See also:nigra), Shoot bearing Leaves and Fruit. 1, Catkin of male flowers. 3, Spike of female flowers. 2, One male flower. 4, Single female flowers. that of Urticaceae; there are generally four See also:free or more or less See also:united perianth leaves, with, in the male.flower, a stamen opposite each perianth See also:leaf ; the filaments are incurved in the mulberry and allied genera and straight in the fig and its See also:allies. Artocarpus has only one stamen. The female flower contains two carpels in the median See also:plane, the posterior one of which is often more or less aborted. Each See also:developed ovary chamber contains a solitary pendulous more or less curved ovule. The fruit is an achene or drupe, often sur; rounded by the fleshy perianth and still further complicated by the See also:union of fruits of different flowers as in mulberry, the development of a fleshy receptacle as in fig, or as in Artocarpus (bread-fruit), by the union of fruits, perianth and axis into a solid fleshy See also:mass. The embryo is generally curved and surrounded by a fleshy endosperm.

From the See also:

evidence of leaf-fossils it is probable that the genus Pious existed as far north as See also:Greenland in the Cretaceous era and was generally distributed in North See also:America and See also:Europe in the See also:Tertiary See also:period up to See also:miocene times.

End of Article: MORACEAE

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