122 PENTANDRIA— HEXAGYNIA. Drosera. 



the length of the stamens. Stigmas ckib-shaped. Caps. 

 ovate, of 1 cell, with 3 or 4 valves. Seeds numerous, 

 minute, obovate, rough, attached to the inside of each 

 valve, chiefly in the middle. 

 Herbaceous, often stemless, clothed with glandular viscid 

 hairs. Leaves either undivided, or lobed, entire. Fl. 

 terminal, racemose, rarely solitary. Pet. red, or white. — 

 This genus seems allied on the one hand to Saxifraga, 

 on the other to Ge7^a?iium, though without any great tech- 

 nical agreement with either. It necessarily becomes the 

 type of a new order, which has nothing to do with the 

 Capj^arides. 



1. D. roltmdifolia. Round-leaved Sun-dew. 



Leaves depressed, nearly orbicular, on hairy footstalks. 

 Flower-stalks radical, racemose. 



D. rotundifolia. Linn. Sp. PL 402. Willd. v. ]. 1543. H. Br. 346, 

 Engl. Bot. V. 13. t. 867. Hull 67. Hook. Scot. 98. Fl. Dan. 

 ^.1028. Bull.Fr. t.\8\.f.A. 



Rorella n. 834. Hall. Hist. v. 1. 372. 



R. rotundifolia perennis. Raii Sijn. 356. 



Ros Solis folio rotimdo. Bank. Pin. 3d7. Raii Sijn.3b6. Ger. Em. 

 1556./. Barrel. Ic. t. 251. f. 1. Moris, v. 3. 620. 



Rorida, sive Ros Solis, major. Lob. Ic, 811./. 



Salsirora, sen Sponsa Solis. Thai. Harcijn. 116. t. 9. f. I. 



Round Sun-dew. Pet. H. Brit. t. 63. f. 10. 



On mossy turfy bogs frequent. 



Perennial. July, August. 



Root fibrous. Stem for the most part entirely wanting. Leaves 

 numerous, depressed, orbicular, more or less obtuse, concave, 

 purplish, about \ an inch broad, each tapering into a flat foot- 

 stalk. The whole disk of the leaf, but especially its margin, is 

 beset with red inflexed hairs, discharging from their ends a drop 

 of viscid acrid fluid. These hairs have been thought irritable, 

 so as to contract when touched, imprisoning insects somewhat 

 in the manner of the American Dioncea Muscipula, a plant allied 

 to Drosera. Fl. several, in a simple cluster, drooping or revo- 

 lute while young, on one or two simple, rounds erect, smooth 

 stalks, 3 or 4 inches high. Bracteas solitary under each j)artial 

 stalk, awl-shaped, deciduous. Petals while, always 5, as well 

 as the stamens. 



The whole plant, except the red hairs of the leaves, turns blackish 

 in drying. Dr. Williams, Professor of Botany at Oxford, as well 

 as the late Dr. Withering, observed this, and the following, oc- 

 casionally to acquire a stem. Authors of the greatest eminence 

 have erred in attributing 5 shjJes to the pre^>ent genus, Avhereas 



