234 



Essential Character — Calyx 4- or 5-divided, cleft or tubular, equal or unequal, 

 occasionally multifid, or entire and obsolete, persistent. Corolla monopetalous, hypogy- 

 nous, bearing the stamens, mostly irregular; the limb ringent or 2-lipped (the lower lip 

 overlapping the upper in eestivation), occasionally 1 -lipped, sometimes nearly equal, deci- ■ 

 duous. Stamens mostly 2, both bearing anthers ; sometimes 4, didynamous, the shorter 

 ones being sometimes sterile ; anthers either 2-celled, their cells being inserted equally 

 or unequally, or 1 -celled, opening lengthwise. Ovarium seated in a disk, 2-celled, the 

 cells either 2- or many-seeded ; style 1 ; stigma 2-lobed, rarely undiv.ided. Capsule 2-celled, 

 the cells 2- or many-seeded, by abortion sometimes becoming 1-seeded, bursting elastically 

 with 2 valves. Dissepiment opposite the valves, separable into two pieces through the 

 axis (the middle being sometimes open) ; these pieces attached to the valves, sometimes 

 separating from them with elasticity ; entire, or occasionally spontaneously separating in 

 two, their inner edge bearing the seeds. Seeds roundish, hanging by subulate ascending 

 processes of the dissepiment ; testa loose ; albumen none ; embryo curved or straight ; 

 cotyledons large, roundish; radicle taper, descending, and at the same time centripetal, 

 curved, or straight; plumula inconspicuous Herbaceous plants or shrubs, chiefly tro- 

 pical ; their hair^ if they have any, simple, occasionally capitate, very rarely stellate. 

 Leaves opposite, rarely in fours, without stipulfe, simple, undivided, entire, or serrated ; 

 rarely sinuate, or having a tendency to become lobed. Inflorescence terminal, or axillary, 

 in spikes, racemes, fascicles, or panicles ; the flowers sometimes even solitary. Flowers 

 usually opposite in the spikes, sometimes alternate, with 3 bracteie, of which the lateral 

 are now and then deficient ; these bracteae sometimes large and leafy, and enclosing a dimi- 

 nished calyx, which is occasionally obsolete. R. Br. chiefly. 



Affinities. In habit these approach Scrophularinese, from which 

 their want of albumen, elastically dehiscing fruit, and the hooked processes 

 of the dissepiment, distinguish them ; with Bignoniacece they agree so nearly 

 in character, that they may be said to differ in nothing but their seeds not 

 being winged, for the hooks are sometimes absent : generally, however, their 

 flowers being intermixed with imbricated bracteae, their many-leaved imbri- 

 cated calyx, and their herbaceous habit, point them out sufficiently. To 

 .Pedalineae they approach in character, but are at once known by their 

 2-celled ovarium and peculiar habit. Von Martius remarks {Nov. Gen. et 

 Sp. 3. 27.), that the didynamy of Acanthaceae is frequently different from 

 that of Scrophularinese in the posterior pair of stamens iDeing the longest, and 

 the anterior pair shortest. 



Geography. Common in all tropical countries, and only found beyond 

 them in very hot ones. In North America a few species extend to the 

 northward as far as Pennsylvania : and in Europe two are found in the basin ' 

 of the Mediterranean. 



Properties. Scarcely known. Acanthus mollis is considered emol- 

 lient; Justicia biflora is used in Egypt for poultices; J. Ecbolium is said 

 to be diuretic. Dec. The flowers, leaves, and root of Justicia Adhatoda 

 are supposed to possess antispasmodic qualities. They are bitterish and 

 subaromatic. Ainslie, 2. 3. Justicia pectoralis, boiled in sugar, yields a 

 sweet-scented syrup, which is considered in Jamaica a stomachic. Swartz. 

 1. 32. The leaves and tender stalks of Justicia Gendarussa have, when 

 rubbed, a strong and not unpleasant smell, and are, after being roasted, 

 prescribed in India in cases of chronic rheumatism attended with swelling in 

 the joints. Ainslie, 2. 68. The basis of a famous French bitter tincture, 

 called Drogue Am^re, highly valued for its stomachic and tonic properties, 

 is the Justicia paniculata, called Creyat in India. Ibid. 1. 96. The leaves 

 of Ruellia strepens are subacrid. Ibid. 2. 153. Another species is reckoned 

 a diuretic in Java. Ibid. 



Examples. Justicia, Lcpidagathis, Ruellia, Acanthus. 



