in botany: A genus of the tetrandria monogynia clas. Its characters are these: The emplacement of the flower is permanent, sitting upon the germen; the flower has four oval petals, which spread open, and four stamens, terminated by small summit; it hath a roundish germen, situated under the flower, crowned by an indented stigma; the germen afterwards turns to a globular capsule, with two cells filled with small seeds. We have but one species of this plant in the English gardens; but Linnæus enumerates six.