James Sowerby [And James Edward Smith], English Botany; Or, Coloured Figures of British Plants, Vol. 2: Resedacae to John T. Boswell Syme Sapindaceae, 3rd Ed., Ed. John T. Boswell Syme

Herbs or shrubs with alternate (rarely opposite) leaves, generally entire or cre-nate, more rarely laciniate. Stipules leaf-like or scale-like, usually deciduous in the shrubby species. Flowers often solitary, with 2 bracteoles on the pedicels, or arranged in cymes, racemes, or panicles; generally perfect but sometimes polygamous, irregular or regular. Calyx generally persistent, of 5 imbricated sepals. Petals 5, hypogynous or slightly adhering to the calyx. Perfect stamens 5, hypogynous or slightly perigynous; anthers sessile or sub-sessile, disposed in a ring and frequently united; connective often dilated and forming a membranous scale-like appendage beyond the anther-cells, which open by a longitudinal cleft, or very rarely by an apical pore. Staminodes present only in the sub-order Sauvagesieæ. Ovary free, sessile, 1-celled, with parietal placentas, generally 3 in number. Style simple; sometimes thickened or incurved at the apex, with a stigma on the under-side; sometimes subulate, with a terminal stigma; more rarely cleft at the apex, or absent, so that the stigmas become sessile. Ovules on each placenta numerous, rarely 1 or 2, anatropous. Fruit a l-celled capsule, opening by as many valves as there are placentas, rarely indehiscent. Seeds with a very short funiculus, and most commonly a hard or leathery testa; albumen fleshy, usually plentiful; embryo in the axis of the albumen generally straight. Cotyledons flat; radicle next the hilum.