15-2 



Essential Character. — Flowers dioecious. Calyx 4-leaved, inferior, oppositely imbricated 

 in aestivation. Stamens cohering- in a solid column, bearing- at the apex about 16 anthers, col- 

 lected in various directions in one head; anthers 2-celled, opening longitudinally and exter- 

 nally. Ovarium superior, 4-cornered, 4 celled, with an idefinite number of ascending ovules 

 attached to the sides of the dissepiments; siigma sessile, simple. Fruit capsular, 4-celled, 

 4-valved, with the seeds sticking to the sides of the dissepiments, which proceed :iom the mid- 

 dle of the valves. Seeds indefinite, very minute, fusiform, with a lax outer integument ; Al- 

 bumen oblong, much less than the seed, lying about the middle of the outer integument ; em- 

 bryo in the midst of fleshy albumen, with 2 cotyledons placed face to face ; (radicle turned 

 towards the hilum, Ad. Brongn. Nees von Esenbeck ; turned to the extremity opposite the hi- 

 lum, Richard). — Herbaceous or half-shrubby caulescent plants. Leaves alternate, slightly 

 sheathing at the base, with a dilated foliaceous petiole, pitcher-shaped at the end, which is ar- 

 ticulated with a lid-like lamina. Racemes terminal, dense, many-flowered. 



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 Cytineae, which had not before 

 been suspected, but which he considered so important as to justify him in placing 

 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 essentially dif- 

 ferent ; 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 approximated ; it has a remote affinity with 

 Droseraceae, but a number of connecting 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 Sarracenieae, and Cephalotus among Rosaceae. 

 The water contained in the unopened pitcher of a plant which flowered in the 

 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 ger- 

 mination of Nepenthes, in Jameson's Journal for April 1830, from which it 

 may be concluded 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 Chinn 



Properties. Unknown. 



Example. Nepenthes. 



CXXXIX. LINE^E. The Flax Tribe. 



Like*, Dec. Theorie, ed. 1.217. (1819) ; Prodr. 1.423. (1824); Lindl. Synops. 53. (1829.) 



Diagnosis. Polypetalous dicotyledons, with definite hypogynous stamens ; 

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

 an imbricated regular calyx, symmetrical flowers, definite pendulous ovules, 

 distinct style, capitate stigmas, stamens immediately hypogynous, flat cotyle- 

 dons, and a capsular many-celled fruit. 



\ MOM A LIE? 



