232 



Affinities. In habit these approach Scrophularineee, from which their 

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

 dissepiment, distinguish them ; with Bignoniacese they agree so nearly in cha- 

 racter, 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 bracterc, their mairv-leaved imbricated 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 di- 

 dynamy of Acanthaceae is frequently different from that of Scrophularineae in 

 the posterior pair of stamens being 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 north- 

 ward as far as Pennsylvania : and in Europe two are found in the basin of the 

 Mediterranean. 



Properties. Scarcely known. Acanthus mollis is considered emollient ; 

 Justicia bifiora is used in Egypt for poultices ; J. Ecbolium is said to be diu- 

 retic. Dec. The flowers, leaves, and root of Justicia Adhatoda are supposed 

 to possess antispasmodic qualities. They are bitterish and subaromatic. Ains- 

 lie, 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 un- 

 pleasant smell, and are, after being roasted, prescribed in India in cases of chro- 

 nic rheumatism attended with swelling in the joints. Ainslie, 2. 68. The basis 

 of a famous French bitter tincture, called Drogue Amere, 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. An- 

 other species is reckoned a diuretic in Java. Ibid. 



Examples. Justicia, Lepidagathis, Ruellia, Acanthus. 



CCXV. PEDALINE/E. The Oil-Seed Tribe. 



Pedalinje, R. Brown Prodr. 519. (1810); Lindlcy in Botan. Register, 9. 934. (1825).— 

 Sesames, Kunth Synops. 2. 251. (1823). — MaktyniacejE, Link Handb. 1. 504. (1829) a 

 sect, of Personata. 



Diagnosis. Monopetalous dicotyledons, with a superior 1 -celled or spuri- 

 ously 4- or 6-celled short woody dehiscent or indehiscent fruit, a woody vari- 

 ously-lobed placenta, irregular unsymmetrical flowers, and exalbuminous apte- 

 rous definite seeds. 



Anomalies. Sesamum has indefinite seeds. 



Essential Character. — Calyx divided into 5 nearly eqvjal pieces. Corolla monopetalous, 

 hypogynous, irregular; the throat ventricose, the limb bilabiate. Stamens didynamous, 

 included within the tube, together with a rudiment of a fifth. Ovarium seated in a glandu- 

 lar disk, unilocular or bilocular, with several 1- or 2-seedcd spurious cells, formed by the 

 splitting of two placentas and the divergence of their lobes ; ovules either erect, or pendulous, 

 or horizontal; style 1 ; stigma divided. Fruit drupaceous, juicclcss, with several cells formed 

 as those of the ovarium. Seeds pendulous, with a papery testa; albumen none; embryo- 

 straight. — Herbaceous plants, heaves opposite. Flowers axillary, each with two bractea% 



Affinities. These differ from Bignoniacere in their wingless seeds, which 

 are usually definite, and in their woody parietal lobed placentae, which spread 



