Page:Illustrations of Indian Botany, Vol. 2.djvu/400

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ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY EXPLANATION OF PLATE 168-b.

1. Rivea ornata (Choisy).

2. Argyreia pomacea (Ch.).

3. Lettsomia aggregata (Roxb. R. W. Ic).

4. Convolvulus rufescens (Ch.).

5. Aniseia calycina (Ch.).

6. Hewetia bicolor (W. and A. Shuteria Ch. non W. and A.).

Obs. According to Choisy's character this genus has a 1-celled ovary; in my specimens they are two- celled with 2 ovules in each, an Ipomcea. ?

7. Breweria Roxburghii (Ch.).

8. Porana volubilis (Burm.).

9. Porana racemosa (Roxb.).

10. Evolvulus alsinoides (Linn.).

11. Cressa Indica (Retz.).

12. Cuscuta hyalina (Roth ? R. W. Ic).

Obs. Roth describes his plant as having very small flowers, a little larger than a mustard seed, and the corol- la 4-cleft. The flowers of my plant are certainly small but larger than his and are 5-lobed. Notwithstanding these discrepancies, I suspect we refer to the same plant, with this difference, that my drawing was made from fresh specimens, his description from dried ones. The figures of this plate however afford no criterion to judge of size as they are all magnified.

This, as it now stands in De Candolle's Prodromus, is au order of great extent (upwards of ^1000 species) and complexity, inasmuch as they (DC. father and son) having brought together as one what most other Botanists view as three distinct orders ; namely Cordiacece, Ehretiacece, and Borraginece proper. To this extreme grouping Lindley is strongly opposed, and even goes so far as to place the first in his Solanal Alliance, the other two in his Echial. Endlicher takes a different view. He retains Cordiacece as a distinct order, but unites Ehretiacece and Borragineoe under the Linnean family name of Asperifoli. Arnott, as will be seen by a reference to his syllabus, preserves all the three, but places them in a sequence. In this article I intend following De Candolle, but so far as the pictorial illus- trations of the order can avail towards conveying a correct understanding of these different views, nothing will be wanting to enable every one, who may consult them, to judge for himself, as they will represent all the three orders or] suborders, as each may think fit to consider them. This is De Candolle's

Character of the Order. — Calyx free, often persistent, sometimes enlarging with the fruit, 5- (very rarely 4-) cleft or parted ; sepals valvate in aestivation. Corolla hypogynous, deciduous, monopetalous, usually 5-lobed ; tube more or less elongated ; limb spreading or erect, sometimes slightly unequal ; aestivation various, usually imbricate with one lobe often exterior. Stamens as many as the lobes of the corolla : anthers erect or incumbent, 2-celled ; cells parallel, opening lengthwise. Ovary consisting of 2 (anterior and posterior) more or less dis- tinct, 2-celled carpels ; cells concrete or separate, 1-ovuled. Torus depressed or elongated, bearing the carpels, inserted either by the base or by the bark. Style between the separate carpels or springing from the apex of the concrete ones, simple, bifid, or twice bifid at the apex. Fruit various, from 4- to 1-seeded. Seed without, or with thin fleshy albumen ; embryo straight, inverse, rarely curved ; cotyledons foliaceous, entire, flat or plicate. — Herbs, undershrubs, shrubs or trees ; with the surfaces of the leaves calyx and ramuli usually beset with bristles, and at length with whitish scales, the indurated bases of the hairs. Branches terete or irregularly angled. Roots, especially of the Borragineae, often tinged brownish red with a peculiar resin- like colouring matter, soluble in water, spirits or oil. Leaves alternate, simple, exstipulate, usually rough or variously bristly. Racemes or spikes (rarely corymbs) variously disposed, often secund and circinate before evolution.

He divides the order into the four following tribes:

Tribe I Cordie^. Ovary undivided; style terminal, twice dichotomous at the apex, rarely wanting. Fruit baccato-drupaceous, 4-seeded. Cotyledons longitudinally plicate ; albumen none. — Shrubs or small trees.

Tribe II Ehretie.e. Ovary undivided; style terminal, 2-lobed at the apex. Fruit baccate or indehiscent. Albumen thin, fleshy. — Shrubs or small trees.

Tribe III. Heliatrope*:. Ovary terminated by a simple style. Fruit dry, separable. Seed exalbuminous. — Shrubs or herbs.