190 



ovula in each ctfU; stt/le 1, simple; it'igma fleshy, siinrounded by a membranous cup. 

 .Fruit inferior, indehiscent, drupaceous, or nut-like. Seeds with a thickened testa; albu- 

 men fleshy, enclosing an erect embryo; cotyledons foliaceous ; plumula inconspicuous.—. 

 Herbaceous plants or shrubs, without milk, with simple or stellate hairs, if any are present. 

 Leaves scattered, undivided, without stipulae. Inflorescence axillary or terminal. Flotcers 

 distinct, never capitate, white, blue, or yellowish. 



Affinities. Combined, on account of their indusiatfe stigmas, by Mr. 

 Brown, with Goodenovia and Brunoniaceae, from the foimer of which they 

 differ in habit, indehiscent fruit, and definite seeds ; from tjae latter, in their 

 inferior ovarium and habit. 



Geography. Natives of the South Seas and the islands of the Indian 

 archipelago. The species are abundant in New Holland. 



Properties. Unknown. 



Examples. Scaevola, Diaspasis, Dampiera. 



CLXXIX. BRUNONIACE^. 



GooDEKOvi^, § 2. n. Broivn Prodr. 589. (1810). 



Diag:nosis. Monopetalous dicotyledons, with regular flowers, a supe- 

 rior entire ovarium, a single erect ovulum, capitate flowers, and a stigma 

 with an indusium. , 



Anomalies. 



Essential Character — Calyx inferior, in 5 divisions, with 4 bracteae at the 

 base. Corolla monopetalous, almost regular, 5-parted, inferior, withering. Stamens defi- 

 nite, hypogynous, alternate with the segments of the corolla; anthers collateral, slightly 

 cohering. Ovarium 1-celled, with a single erect ovulum ; style single ; stigma enclosed in 

 a 2-valved cup. Fruit a membranous utricle enclosed within the indurated tui)^ of the 

 calyx. Seed solitary', erect, without albumen ; embryo with plano-convex fleshy cotyledons, 

 and a minute inferior radicle. — Herbaceous ^plants, without stems, and simple glandless 

 hairs. Leaves radical, entire, with no stipulw. Flowers collected in heads, surrounded 

 by enlarged bractea», blue. 



Affinities. Placed by Mr. Brown as a section of Goodenovia?, from 

 which they, iji my judgment, differ essentially in their superior 1 -celled 

 ovarium and capitate flowers, thus approaching some species of Dipsaceac, 

 from which they differ in the want of an involucellum, their erect ovulum, 

 superior ovarium, and peculiar stigma. With reference to this, Mr. Brown 

 says : " Brunonia agrees with Goodenovisc in the remarkable indusium of 

 the stigma, in the structure and connexion of the antheree, in the seed 

 being erect, and essentially in the aestivation of corolla. It differs from 

 them in having both calyx and corolla distinct from the ovarium, in the 

 disposition of vessels in the corolla, in the filaments being jointed at top, 

 in the seed being without albumen, and in its remarkable inflorescence, 

 compatible, indeed, with the nature of the irregularity in the corolla of 

 Goodenovise, but which can hardly co-exist with that characterising Lobe- 

 liaceae. With Compositae it agrees essentially in inflorescence, in the sesti- 

 vatibn of corolla, in the remarkable joint or change of texture in the apex 

 of its filaments, and in the structure of the ovarium and seed. It differs 

 from them in having ovarium liberum or superum, in the want of a glandular 

 disk, in the immediately hypogynous insertion of the filaments, in the indusion 

 of the stigma, and in the vascular structure of the corolla, whose tulje has five 

 nerves only, and these continued through the axes of the lacinise, either ter- 

 minating simply (as is at least frequently the case in Brunonia sericea), or (as 

 in B. australis) dividing at top into two recurrent branches, forming lateral 



