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Essential Character. — Calyx tubular, somewhat coloured, contracted in the middle; its 

 limb entire or toothed, plaited in aestivation, becoming indurated at the base. Stamens defi- 

 nite, hypogynous ; anthers 2-celled. Ovary superior, with a single erect ovulum ; style 1 ; 

 stigma 1. Fruit a thin utricle, enclosed within the enlarged persistent tube of the calyx. 

 Seed without its proper integuments, its testa being coherent with the utricle ; embryo with 

 foliaceous cotyledons, wrapping round floury albumen ; radicle inferior ; plumula inconspicu- 

 ous. — Stem either herbaceous, shrubby, or arborescent. Leaves opposite, and almost always 

 unequal ; sometimes alternate. Flowers axillary or terminal, clustered or solitary, having an 

 involucrum which is either common or proper, in one piece or in several pieces, sometimes 

 minute. 



Affinities. The tubular calyx, the limb of which is plaited in aestivation, 

 and the base of which becomes hardened round the ovarium, so that it resem- 

 bles a woody pericarp, will, if taken with the curved embryo and farinaceous 

 albumen, at all times distinguish Nyctaginese ; add to which, the articulations 

 are tumid, as in Geraniaceoe. Its nearest affinity is perhaps with Polygonese, 

 from which it, however, differs so much that it need not be compared with 

 them. 



Geography. Natives of the warmer parts of the world in either hemis- 

 phere, scarcely extending far beyond the tropics, except in the case of the Abro- 

 nias found in Northwest America. 



Properties. In consequence of the generally purgative quality of the 

 roots of species of this family, one of them was supposed to have been the true 

 jalap plant, which is, however, now known to be a mistake. The flowers of 

 several species of Mirabilis are handsome, as are those also of some of the 

 Abronias ; but the greater part of the order is composed of obscure weeds. 

 The genus Pisonia consists of trees or shrubby plants. 



Examples. Mirabilis, Boerhaavia, Oxybaphus. 



CLIX. SAURUREiE. 



SAURURE.E, Rich. Anal. (180S) ; Meyer dc Houttuynia alque Saururcis, (1827) : Martins Hort 



Monac. (1829.) 



Diagnosis. Achlamydeous dicotyledons, with 4 carpella, ascending ovules, 

 and embryo in a sac. 

 Anomalies. 



Essential Character. — Flowers naked, seated upon a scale, monoclinous. Stamens 6 

 clavate, hopogynous, persistent ; filaments slender ; anthers continuous with the filament cu- 

 neate, with a thick connectivum and 2 lateral lobes bursting longitudinally. Ovaria 4 each 

 distinct, with I ascending ovulum and a sessile recurved stigma, or connate into a 3- or 

 4-celled pistillum, with a few ovula ascending from the edge of the projecting semi-dissepi- 

 ments. Fruit either consisting of 4 fleshy indehiscent nuts, or 3- or 4-celled capsule, opening 

 at the apex and containing a few ascending seeds. Seeds with a membranous integument ; 

 embryo minute, lying in a fleshy lenticular sac, which is seated on the outside of the hard 

 mealy albumen at the end most remote from the hilum. Herbaceous plants, growing in marshy 

 places, or floating in water. Leaves alternate with stipula. Hairs jointed. Flowers growing 

 in spikes. 



Affinities. Very near Piperaceae, with which they agree in habit, but 

 from which they differ in the compound nature of their ovarium, and their nu- 

 merous stamens. From repeated examination of the embryo of Saururus, I 

 have no doubt whatever that the embryo has no kind of vascular connexion with 

 the sac that contains it ; and hence I adopt the opinion of Mr. Brown, that this 

 sac is in reality nothing but the remains of the amnios surrounding the em- 

 bryo. For the opinions of Mirbel and Richard upon this subject, see the 

 figures and remarks of the former in Ann, Mtis. 16. 449., and of the latter in 



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