234 



Ramonda of the Pyrenees should be found a genuine plant of the order, as 

 Von Martius supposes. 



Properties. Unknown. 



Examples. Cyrtandra, Didymocarpus, Chirita, Incarvillea. 



CCXVII. BIGNONIACEiE. The Trumpet-Flower Tribe. 



Biqnonije. § 2. Juss. Gen. 137. (1789).— Bignoniace*, JR. Broun Prodr. 470. (1810); Link 

 Handb. 1. 503. (1829) a sect, of Personate. 



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

 a central placenta, irregular unsymmetrical flowers, and exalbuminous winged 

 seeds. 



Anomalies. Eccremocarpus has a 1-celled fruit with parietal placentse. 

 The fruit is sometimes spuriously 4-celled. 



Essential Character. — Calyx divided or entire, sometimes spathaceoug. Corolla mono- 

 petalous, hypogynous, usually irregular, 4-5-lobed. Stamens 5, unequal, always 1, sometimes 

 3, sterile; anthers 2-celled, formed normally. Ovarium seated in a. disk, 2-celled, or spuri- 

 ously 4-celled, polyspermous ; style 1 ; stigma of 2 plates. Capsule 2-valved, 2-celled, often 

 long- and compressed, sometimes spuriously 4-celled. Dissepiment either parallel with the 

 valves, or contrary to them, finally becoming separate, bearing the seeds at the commissure 

 along with the valves. Seeds transverse, compressed, often winged ; albumen ; embryo 

 straight, foliaceous ; radicle centrifugal.— Trees or shrubs, often twining or climbing. 

 Leaves opposite, very rarely alternate, compound or occasionally simple, without stipula. 

 Inflorescence terminal, somewhat panicled. 



Affinities. Distinguished from Scrophularinese and their immediate allies 

 by the want of albumen, from Acanthacese by their winged seeds, and from 

 both by their arborescent habit. Eccremocarpus is, however, an exception to 

 the latter character, and also differs in having an unilocular ovarium and fruit ; 

 in the latter respect approaching Cyrtandracese and Pedalineae, from which, 

 however, its winged seeds divide it. This wing to the seed is a beautiful 

 membrane formed of transparent cellular tissue, which, in an Indian unpub- 

 lished genus given me by Dr. Wallich, offers an instance of reticulated cellules, 

 analogous to those of Maurandia Barclay ana. There do not appear to be any 

 very certain limits between Bignoniacese, Cyrtandracea?, and Pedalineae, which 

 might be reunited without much inconvenience. Eccremocarpus may be con- 

 sidered the link between the two former, and Sesamum that between the two 

 latter. 



Geography. The tropics of either hemisphere are their chief station, 

 from which they extend northwards in North America as far as Pennsylvania, 

 and southwards into the southern provinces of Chile. In Europe they are 

 unknown. 



Properties. Little known, except the great beauty of their flowers. 

 Chica is a red feculent substance obtained by boiling the leaves of Bignonia 

 Chica in water ; the Chica is quickly precipitated by adding some pieces of 

 the bark of an unknown tree, called Arayana. The Indians use it for paint- 

 ing their bodies red ; it is also becoming an article of importance to dyers. 

 Brewster, 2. 370. It approaches in nature the resins, but contains some 

 peculiar properties : it gives an orange red to cotton. Ed. P. J. 12. 417. The 

 tough shoots of Bignonia Cherere are woven into wicker-work ; and several 

 kinds of Bignonias form large trees in the forests of Brazil, where they are 



