AVENS. [Gzuu.] a genus of plants belonging to the natural order Oxalidacece. It consists of two species, both of which form small trees in the East Indies. They are remarkable for their leaves, which are pinnated, possessing in a slight degree the kind of irritability found in the sensitive plant, and for their fleshy oval fruits with thick longitudinal wings. From the other genus of Oxalidaceee they are known by this character, independently of all others.
In the Carambola (A. carambola) the leaves are smooth, the flowers of a violet-purple, and the fruit about the size of a goose's egg; it is of a pale yellow colour, and is said to be agreeably acid in the East Indies. It was expected that it would prove worth culti vating in the hothouse for the dessert, but it proves upon trial to placing the plants in damp mom, he found those roots had a tendency to come to the surface towards the light Not only is this the case, but the colourless stems of such plants as Sagittaria sagatifolia aro known to assume the directions of roots. In this plant "shoots are
produced from the axillze of all the radical leaves which grow at the bottom of the water. Those shoots have their points directed towards the sky, like those of all vegetables. The young stems which are produced by there shoots are entirely colourless, like roots ; and instead of taking a direction towards the sky, as coloured stems would do, they lead downward, pointing towards the centre of the earth. This subterranean stem next takes a horizontal course, and does not assume any tendency towards the sky until the points become green." (Meyer, Lindley, Introduction to Botany ; Dutroehet, Amt. des Sciences Naturelles, xxix., 1833.)