ANGIOSPERMH. DICOTYLEDONS. 445 



whorl suppressed (Museae), but the only fertile one in the other two families has 

 only a half anther, the others being developed as petaloid staminodes (Figs. 367 369) ; 

 fruit inferior, a trilocular berry or capsule; endosperm wanting, perisperm copious. 

 Usually handsome herbaceous shrub-like plants, often large in Museae, growing from a 

 persistent rhizome with large leaves usually differentiated into a broad lamina, stalk and 

 sheath. 



Families, i. Museae. 



2. Zingibereae. 



3. Canneae. (Maranteae.) 



Series VI. Gynandrae. 



The entire flower is zygomorphous in its early and in its matured state ; by torsion of 

 the long inferior ovary in Orchideae the anterior side of the developed flower is usually 

 posterior ; the two trimerous perianth-whorls are petaloid, the posterior leaf of the inner 

 whorl (labellum) usually spurred ; of the six typical stamens of the two whorls the 

 anterior only are developed, and in the Orchideae (with the exception of Cypripedium) 

 only the anterior stamen of the outer whorl is fertile and has large anthers, the two 

 obliquely anterior stamens of the inner whorl forming small staminodes ; but it is these 

 which are fertile in Cypripedium^ while the anterior stamen of the outer whorl forms a 

 large staminode ; the case is the same in Apostasieae, or the three anterior stamens are 

 fertile ; the filaments of the fertile and sterile stamens coalesce with the three styles to 

 form a gynostemium ; pollen in single grains, tetrads, masses or pollinia ; ovary inferior 

 unilocular with parietal placentas (Orchideae), or trilocular with central placentas 

 (Apostasieae) ; ovule anatropous ; seeds very numerous and small without endosperm ; 

 embryo undifferentiated. Small herbs or shrubby plants ; tropical Orchideae often 

 epiphytic with peculiar aerial roots ; our native species are perennial with underground 

 rhizomes or tubers ; some Orchideae are saprophytes and destitute of chlorophyll, and 

 some have no roots (Epipogum^ Corallorhizd). 



Families. I. Orchideae. 

 2. Apostasieae. 



The Burmanniaceae with cymose inflorescence, three or six fertile epipetalous 

 stamens, a free tripartite style and unilocular or trilocular inferior ovary, are connected 

 with the Gynandrae by their small seeds without endosperm and their undifferentiated 

 embryo ; some of these plants, which are usually of small size, are also saprophytes 

 and destitute of chlorophyll. 



Series VII. Helobiae. 



Flowers actinomorphous with more or fewer whorls than the typical number in 

 Monocotyledons ; gynaeceum of three or more monomerous ovaries with one or more 

 seeds ; ovary in Hydrocharideae inferior ; seeds with little or no endosperm. Marsh 

 or water plants, dioecious or polygamous in Hydrocharideae. 



Families. I. Juncagineae. 



2. Alismaceae. 



3. Hydrocharideae, with Vallisnerieae and Stratiotes. 



B. DICOTYLEDONS. 



The ripe seed of the Dicotyledons contains either a large endosperm and a 

 small embryo, as in the Euphorbiaceae, Coffea, Myristica^ the Umbelliferae, Ampelideae, 

 Polygonaceae, some Caesalpinieae, etc., or the embryo is comparatively large and the 

 endosperm occupies but a small space, as in the Plumbagineae, Labiatae, Asclepia- 

 deae and many others, or lastly the endosperm is wanting, and the embryo alone 

 fills the space enclosed by the seed-coat, in which case the mature embryo often 



