155 



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Affinities. The relation that is borne by the highly curious plants which 

 this order contains was not even guessed at until M. Adolphe Brongniart pointed 

 out a resemblance between them and Cytinece, which had not before been 

 suspected, but which he considered so important as to justify him in placino- 

 it in the same order. While we admit the ingenuity with which this opinion 

 is sustained, it is impossible to agree with M. Brongniart in the conclusion 

 at which he has arrived. To say nothing of the extreme dissimilarity in 

 habit between these plants, the structure of their fruit appears to me essen- 

 tially different ; and the seeds of Cytinus being unknown, the resemblance 

 between it and Nepenthes is reduced to a similarity in the arrangement 

 of the anthers, which cannot in the present case be considered of much 

 importance, as it in some degree depends upon the unisexuality of the 

 flowers of both genera. It appears to me that, in the existing state of our 

 knowledge, there is no order to which Nepenthes can be safely approxi- 

 mated : it has a remote affinity with Droseracege, but a number of con- 

 necting links is required to fill up the space between them. The best 

 account of the structure of Nepenthes will be found in the Ann. des Sc. 

 1. 42. and 3. 366. The structure of the pitcher-shaped leaves is analogous 

 to that of Sarracennieae, and Cephalotus among Rosacese. The water con- 

 tained in the unopened pitcher of a plant which flowered in the Botanic 

 Garden, Edinburgh, was found by Dr. Turner " to emit, while boiling, an 

 odour like baked apples, from containing a trace of vegetable matter, and to 

 yield minute crystals of superoxalate of potash on being slowly evaporated 

 to dryness." B. Mag. 2798, There is a good account of the germination of 

 Nepenthes, in Jameson's Journal for April 1830, from which it may be con- 

 cluded that the long loose tunic of the seed is intended to act at first as a 

 buoy, to float the seed upon the surface of the water, and afterwards as an 

 anchor, to keep it fast upon the mud until it can have struck root. 



Geography. All natives of swamps in the East Indies and China. 



Properties. Unknown. 



Example. Nepenthes. 



CXXXIX. LINE^. The Flax Tribe. 



LinejE, Dec. Thtorie, ed. 1. 217. (1819) ; Prodr. 1. 423. (1824) ; Li7idl. Synops. 53. (1829). 



Diagnosis. Polypetalous dicotyledons, with definite hypogynous sta- 

 mens, concrete carpella, an entire ovarium of several cells with placentae in 

 the axis, an imbricated regular calyx, symmetrical flowers, definite pen- 

 dulous ovules, distinct style, capitate stigmas, stamens immediately hypo- 

 gynous, flat cotyledons, and a capsular many-celled fruit. 



Anomalies. 



Essential Character Sepals 3-4-5, with an imbricated aestivation, continuous 



with the peduncle, persistent. Petals equal in number to the sepals, hypog'ynous, ungui- 

 €ulate, with a twisted sestivation. Stamens equal in number to the petals, and alternate 

 with them, united at the base in a hypogynous ring, from which proceed little teeth 

 opposite to the petals, and indicating abortive stamens ; anthers ovate, innate. Ovarium 

 with about as many cells as sepals, seldom fewer; styles ecjual in number to the cells; 

 stiymas capitate. Capsule generally pointed with the indurated base of the styles, many, 

 celled ; each cell partially divided in two by an imperfect spurious dissepiment, and dehis- 

 cing with two valves at the apex. Seeds in each cell single, compressed, inverted ; albumeri 

 usually absent; inner lining of the testa tumid ; embryo straight, fleshy, with the radicle 



pointing towards the hilum ; cotyledons Hat Herbaceous plants, or small shrubs. Leaves 



entire, without stipulae, usually alternate. Petals very fugitive. 



