rosales

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. A cohort of dicotyledonous plants, of the polypetalous series Calycifloræ, characterized by distinct styles and solitary or numerous and separate carpels, not united into a syncarpic ovary as in the other cohorts of the series. The leaves are either compound or simple, and the flowers either regular or irregular, but commonly unisexual. It includes 9 orders, 3 of which are small families with a pendulous apical ovule—the Hamamelideæ, trees and shrubs, Bruniaceæ, heath-like shrubs, and Halorageæ, chiefly aquatics; 1, a small family with parietal ovules—the Droseraceæ, glandular herbs; and the 5 others, families with ovules ascending or affixed to the central angle—the large orders Leguminosæ, Rosaceæ, and Saxifragaceæ, together with the Connaraceæ, tropical trees and shrubs, and the Crassulaceæ, fleshy herbs.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. in some classifications this category does not include Leguminosae