in botany: A genus of the trigynia order, belonging to the octandra clas of plants; and in the natural method ranking under the 23rd order, Tribulata. Its characters are these: the flower has a permanent epaulette, composed of four small oval leaves; it has four oblong oval petals, twice the size of the epaulette; and eight short stamens with a turbinate germen, having three short slender styles, crowned by spreading stigmas; the germen turns to a large three-cornered capsule with three cells, each containing one almost oval seed. Linnæus reckons seven, and Miller nine, species, natives of the West Indies.