• 230 



coldest regions in which the vegetation of flowering plants takes place, to 

 the hottest places within the tropics. One species is found in Melville 

 Island ; in middle Europe they form about a 26th of the flowering plants, 

 and in North America about a 36th. In all India, New Holland, and South 

 America, they are common, and, finally, the sterile shores of Terra del Fuego 

 are ornamented with several species. 



Properties. Generally acrid, bitterish, suspected "plants. The leaves 

 and roots of Scrophularia aquatica, and perhaps nodosa, of Gratiola offici- 

 nalis and peruviana, and of Calceolaria, act as purgatives, or even as emetics. 

 In Digitalis, which is in many respects very near Solaneae, this quality is so 

 much increased, that its effects become highly dangerous. The powdered 

 leaves, or an extract of them, produce vomiting, dejection, and vertigo, in- 

 crease the secretion of the saliva and urine,. lower the pulse, and even cause 

 death. Dec. According to Vauquelin, the purgative quality of Gratiola 

 depends upon the presence of a peculiar substance, analogous to resin, but ' 

 differing in being soluble in hot water. The leaves of Mimulus guttatus are 

 eatable as salad. The juice of the leaves of Torenia asiatica are considered, 

 on the Malabar coast, a cure for gonorrhoea. Ainslie, 2. 122. An infusion 

 of Scoparia dulcis is used by the Indians of Spanish America to cure agues. 

 Humboldt Cinch. Forests, 22. Eng. ed. 



Duvau, in an excellent memoir upon the general characters of Veronica, 

 proposes the following sections of this order; s&q Ann. des So. vol. 8. p. 176. 

 1826. 



Veronice*. 



Examples. Veronica, Sibthorpia, Disandra. 



Erinaceji. 

 Examples. Manulea, Buchnera, Erinus. 



ScrophularinejE. 

 Examples. Scrophularia, Antirrhinum, Mimulus, Gratiola, Chelone, 

 Digitalis. 



To these Link adds, as will be seen among the synonymes of the order, 

 Halleriacese, containing the baccate genera, and Scopariacese, containing 

 Scoparia alone. 



CCXII. RHINANTHACE^. The Rattle Tribe. 



Melampyrace^e, Rich. Anal, du Fniit. (180fi); Lindl. Synops. !94. (1829). — 

 RiiiNANTUACEvi:, Dec. Fl. Fr. 3.454. (1815); Dec. and Duly Bot. Gall. .'J51. 

 (1828) in part — Pediculares, Jms*. <^en. 99. {yjQQ) in part ; Duvau in Ann. 

 des Sc. Nat. 8. 180. (1826.) 



Diagnosis. Monopetalous dicotyledons, with a superior 2-celled cap- 

 sule, irregular unsymnietrical flowers, crested bractea;, albuminous seeds, and 

 a heterotropous embryo. 



Anomalies. 



Essential Character — Calyx divided, persistent, unequal, inferior, foliaceous. 

 Corolla monopetalous, hypogynous, deciduous, personate. Stamens 4, didynamous ; anthers 

 with acuminate lobes. Ovarium superior, 2-celled, 2-seeded ; style 1 ; stigma obtuse. Fruit 

 capsular, 2-ceIled, 2-valved, covered by the calyx. Seeds ascending ; embryo minute, in- 

 verted (hetefotropous) in fleshy albumen — Herbaceous plants. Leaves opposite, without 

 stipuliE. Flowers axillary, with coloured or crested floral leaves. 



Affinities. Distinguished from Scrophularineae by the inverted or 

 heterotropous embryo, the seeds being generally winged and few in number, 

 often definite, and the bractese dilated and foliaceous : at least such is the 



