SUPPLEMENT. 



THE FAMILIES OF FLOWERING PLANTS. 

 By Chaeles Louis Poll.\J{d. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



Order Ranales. 



The representatives of this order inchide many of our most familiar 

 native plants, and some of them are among the first to appear in early 

 spring. The order is a large one, comprising sixteen families, of which 

 the Nymphaeaceae, Eanunculaceae, Berberidaceae, Maguoliaceae and 

 Laiiraceae are the most important. As a rule, the flowers have a corolla 

 composed of distinct petals, but there are often cases of apetalous flow- 

 ers, particularly in many Eanun- 

 culaceae and in practically all the 

 Lauraceae. The ovary is always 

 superior and free from the calyx ; 

 it may be composed of one or 

 many carpels. The stamens are 

 numerous and hypogynous (in- 

 serted beneath the ovary). 



Family Nymphaeaceae. Water- 

 lily Family. Contains eight gen- 

 era and about 30 species, all 

 aquatic herbs, denizens of fresh 

 water ponds and streams in tem- 

 perate and tropical regions. They 

 furnish by far the finest and most 

 ornamental examples of cultivated 

 aquatics. The plants produce sol- 

 itary axillary flowers, whose struc- 

 ture differs remarkably among 

 the different genera. In the water-shields ( Cabomha and Brasenia) the 

 sepals and petals are 3 and the stamens 6 ; in the true water-lilies ( Cas- 

 talia), the lotuses {Nelumho), and the spatter-dock {Nympliaea), the 

 petals and stamens are numerous, and there is often a tendency for the 

 stamens to become petaloid and to lose their function as pollen-bearers. 



Fig. 84. The water-shield {Bi asenia purpurea). 

 After Britton & Brown, 111. Fl. North. U. S. 



